what was the tax case

[Vet]

what was the case where a teacher of ancient greek history successfully claimed a trip to greece. I think it went on appeal.

[SA]

This one?


http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/AATA/1989/505.html

[Vet]

Thanks SA.

[ 14. November 2009, 12:12 PM: Message edited by: Vet ]

[SA]

Dunno. Will have a quick look tonight.

[Vet]

I liked the bit where Gerber basically said "If lawyers can go on tax deductible 'conference' in Rome, why can't teachers of history claim deductions.'

[SA]

Why not indeed ;)

Doesn't look like it went on appeal.

[Vet]

I was pretty sure it was going to the High Court :confused: Maybe I better ask the Judges at the beach at the clearly tax deductble Medico-Legal Conference in Greece. :D

[Taxman]

Self-education expenses can always be a bit of a lottery (for some reason tax legislation is loaded against employed taxpayers). Better if the travel can be claimed as a business related expense.

[Vet]

I like the odds. :D

[Ms Gums]

A lot of the time though, if the travel was required by an employee to earn assessable income within ones current employment, the employer would or should pay for it.

This is where a lot of tax deductions get knocked on the head. If the employer does not pay for the expense, it can sometimes mean that the expense was not really necessary for the employee to do their job and is therefore disallowed by the ATO.

[Polaris]

So if the employer was also the employee (ie self employed in a Pty Ltd Co.) you could get away with anything!

Dear Mr Tax Commisionner,
Employee X was required to travel to Japan to investigate significant business opportunities in *insert general business description* at the following Ski fields blah blah blah.........
Signed
Employer X

Unless you get audited I suppose graemlins/cold.gif

[Ms Gums]

Basically.... ;)


You would just have to come up with paperwork to substantiate how it was related.

[Polaris]

Originally posted by Ms Gums:
Basically.... ;)


You would just have to come up with paperwork to substantiate how it was related. ummmmmm.....

Builder = cold weather environment construction techniques
Chef = Japanese cuisine and/or attempting to establish a Australian restaurant in Japan
Bus driver = snow driving techniques

Just have to get your creative juices flowing ;)

[Vet]

I placed students in ski, dive and spa resort courses where they given behind-the-scene tours of bars, hotels and restaurants:$1900 for 7-10 days in Japan incl flights if I recall but the accom was pretty tiny.

How hard would it be to get a package tour like that arranged?

[Ms Gums]

Originally posted by Polaris:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Ms Gums:
Basically.... ;)


You would just have to come up with paperwork to substantiate how it was related. ummmmmm.....

Builder = cold weather environment construction techniques
Chef = Japanese cuisine and/or attempting to establish a Australian restaurant in Japan
Bus driver = snow driving techniques

Just have to get your creative juices flowing ;) </font>[/QUOTE]Yep, not hard.

Wouldn't get through with the attempting to open a Japanese restaurant in Australia though. The expense is of a capital nature not a revenue nature. It is before the fact.
If the chef were to visit Japan and they currently work in a Japanese restaurant, that would get through.

[Podlettte]

what about learning the proper techniques of japanese cuisine to incorporate into the restaurant?

[Vet]

see your tax adviser before you plan your trip.

Teachers get some 'breaks', but only if they can tick a number of boxeson the ATO's requirements.

Some might go to a conference, like the accountants and lawiars conference in the US or Canada every year. ($A4-5k for a week sharing a room with an accountant was too high a price to pay). Even after discounting that by a tax deduction, who wants to sleep with an accountant tongue.gif

Or read upon Project Wickerby before skiing in tax havens. Frankly with Russia and the eastern bloc having 13%-19% flat rates of tax, everywhere, dear Commissioner, is a tax haven.

[TC]

i claimed for sico as a conference
i have the receipt to prove it

[Ms Gums]

Originally posted by Podlettte:
what about learning the proper techniques of japanese cuisine to incorporate into the restaurant? If you already owned a restaurant, then I would say yes. If you were setting one up, then it is a capital cost.

[Ms Gums]

Originally posted by Vet:
see your tax adviser before you plan your trip.

Teachers get some 'breaks', but only if they can tick a number of boxeson the ATO's requirements.

Some might go to a conference, like the accountants and lawiars conference in the US or Canada every year. ($A4-5k for a week sharing a room with an accountant was too high a price to pay). Even after discounting that by a tax deduction, who wants to sleep with an accountant tongue.gif

Or read upon Project Wickerby before skiing in tax havens. Frankly with Russia and the eastern bloc having 13%-19% flat rates of tax, everywhere, dear Commissioner, is a tax haven. tongue.gif

Even those conferences can be frowned upon as they can be considered that the conference was incidental to the trip as a whole because of the number of structured course hours compared to the fee time.

[Vet]

And if you can do the trip for a week for say $3k, why pay $5k just to get some back off the ATO. Doh.