My steps to lodge my own tax return – Salaried worker with normal expenses

This is my own steps, that I drafted on my own, to lodge the much dreaded yearly tax return. It won’t work to everyone’s needs, it suits mine – normal salaried worker with long term held shares and properties.

1. Create an excel spreadsheet. 
   1. I have my own that I create for my own circumstance, that you can copy from here.
   2. Save that spreadsheet under  “Income Tax Return FInancial Year 20xx” in e-file system.

Tip: model the spreadsheet as per income tax return lay out

Tip no 2: always refer to the guide and ATO website in general for a clear guidance

2. Do your expenses first
   1. Calculate your WFH days
   2. Calculate your WFH deductions per ATO website
   3. Enter this into the spreadsheet
   4. Grab the expenses you had filed during the year, for example:
   5. Stationery expenses
   6. Laptop invoice
   7. Keyboard invoice
   8. Ergo chair invoice
   9. Working desk invoice
   10. Desk lamp invoice

Note: 

• whenever I incurred an expense to gain assessable income e.g. laptop, I will always straightaway safe keep it.
• How?
• screenshot it or save it into my gmail, and then label it as Income Tax Return FInancial Year 20xx”.
• And then synch that straight into into my e-filing system into the folder “Income Tax Returno a FInancial Year 20xx.

11. Enter these expenses into the spreadsheet

3. Do your incomes 
   1. Get your PAYG SUMMARY off MYGOV
      1. Key into the spreadsheet your gross salary & withheld amount
   2. Check your other incomes, some of most common incomes are here:
      1. Dividend – from your broker’s EOFY statement
      2. Interest on savings – from your banks and it will be data matched
      3. Capital gains – from your broker’s EOFY statement 
      4. Online retail income – from eBay, PayPal, etsy, etc
      5. Share trading income – from your broker’s EOFY statement
4. Double check everything
5. Ensure all necessary documents are saved in the folder
6. Have a break 
7. Triple chec
8. Key these figures into etax/mygove
9. Double check everything
10. Ensure all necessary documents are saved in the folder
11. Have a break 
12. Triple check
13. Keep these for proofs:
    1. lodged lodgement
    2. lodgement receipt
    3. Your excel 
    4. All of the invoices, EOFY statements from brokers, bank statements, etc
    5. Notice of Assessments (once received)

For property investor

1. I would suggest that every investor check rent regularly i.e. whenver rental statement comes in, it’s got to be checked on its accuracy i.e.:
   1. is the income correct, 
   2. Has it covered all the required rental period
   3. Is this expense necessary 
   4. Has this expense been approved by you)
   5. Has the money (net rent) indeed transferred and received into the nominated bank account of yours
2. While rent checking, I would suggest that you have an excel tracking:
   1. Gross income
   2. Other rental related incomes
   3. Expenses such as:
      1. Rates
      2. Council
      3. Utilities
      4. Property management
      5. Body Corp
      6. Interest deductions
      7. Capital works
   4. Net rent
3. This way, at filing, you would only need to very little steps, such as the following. I have created my own template for my own situation, which you could use to give you an idea on how to do yours.
   1. Get your gross income from EOFY rental statement
   2. Total your expenses, e.g.:
      1. Council
      2. Utilities
      3. Body Corp
      4. Advertising
   3. Total your expenses
   4. Deduct your gross income against your total expenses, to get your net income
   5. Fill in the schedule of property
   6. Fill in the rent section with these figures:
      1. Gross rent
      2. Interest
      3. Capital works
      4. Other
      5. Net loss
   7. And then double and triple check. Ensure you have all documents.
   8. If everything is correct, all documents are saved properly on hand. You’re ready to submit 🙂

Note: if have any doubt, call the tax office directly. They are super friendly!