An Australian Taxation and Accountancy Practice has established a new service aimed at making it easier and more streamlined for truck drivers and operators to keep track of receipts and to complete their tax returns ensuring that they don’t pay any more tax than necessary.
Tax for Truckies– www.taxfortruckies.com.au believes in the principle of ensuring drivers claim every deduction they are legally entitled to and making it easier for them to do just that.
According to Michael Gallagher, Chartered Tax Adviser from Tax for Truckies, the service aims to help truckies who don’t particularly like book work, and asked “are there any who do? “
“You’re working for yourself not for the ATO; it’s no good working your guts out making it if you lose half in tax,” said Michael Gallagher.
“Don’t get me wrong, everyone needs to pay tax to support our social and economic system. it is the right thing to do but it should be a fair and not an unnecessary amount” he said.
“However, some people pay far more tax than they need to pay due to ignorance, slackness and just not being interested enough. We can make it easier.” said Michael Gallagher
“Every dollar of deduction that you forget to claim will generally cost you about 40 cents,” he added.
“ Kerry Packer once said to a Federal Senate Committee that he paid the amount of tax that he needed to pay legally and not a cent more “cause you people don’t use it well enough for me to be paying you more,” Michael said.
Michael Gallagher has been a specialist tax accountant for more than 40 years and has looked closely at the truck industry to come up with a better way for truck drivers and operators to maximise their deductions and minimise their tax obligations.
Tax for Truckies doesn’t expect its clients to keep receipts and present them at tax time. Instead, it has an easy system of getting you to photograph receipts during the year with your mobile phone and forwarding them using a specific mobile app.
“All we ask you to do is to take a picture of your receipts before you throw them away using a phone app and then press submit on the app and that’s it,” said Michael.
“We will show you what to do; invite you to download the app on your phone via SMS text or email; you accept the invitation by clicking the link in the invitation, then start taking photos of your receipts,” he added.
“Photos of receipts ‘submitted’ by the app button means you will capture all your tax deductions and we will have a permanent record of the receipt for 10 years so you don’t have to worry about lost receipts,” he said.
“Clients need have no fear of an audit from the Australian Taxation Office and this system works for employees, self-employed subbie truck drivers or larger employers,” Michael adds.
“For the driver who operates as a company or family trust then these classified receipts can be pushed through or integrated with an accounting package like Xero, MYOB or Quickbooks etc. to produce up-to-date financial accounts and tax returns,” he adds.
Michael Gallagher emphasises that accounting software will be necessary where clients have employees including themselves due to ‘Single Touch Payroll (STP) requirements.
“Clients also need to understand their obligations relating to Superannuation for employees and in particular the pitfalls in the contentious area of subcontractors,” he added.
“Employer companies may also require job management software to track employees and the progress and cost of jobs.”
As Michael Gallagher pointed out, it is a legal requirement for companies to produce financial reports, and banks also need them as a requirement for lending money, so more efficient record keeping is a vital part of a successful truck operation just like a well-kept driver’s work diary or a truck service record.
“Taxation compliance is critical for clients who don’t have tax deducted from their income and the most successful clients are the ones who do tax planning and set aside funds for payment of their taxation obligations. We can assist with suggestions giving pro-active and not re-active advice around tax” he added.
Michael concludes that “Tax For Truckies’ also offers the first phone or personal interview free of charge. He says that “although you may think that we may not be the right fit for you, we challenge you to test us out.”
