Now that the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) year has just ended, it is important to make sure that issues regarding benefits provided to employees and associates are considered.

The ATO has finalised a practical compliance guideline to address the compliance challenges faced by taxpayers in relation to separately identifying home charging costs for electric vehicles (EVs) from the total electricity consumption of a household.

It sets out a method that calculates the cost of electricity when an EV is charged at an employee’s or an individual’s home. Taxpayers may choose to apply a rate of 4.20 cents per kilometre travelled in an FBT or income year.

The federal government has announced an overhaul of the previous Coalition government stage 3 tax cuts and introduced various changes in the personal tax rates that apply from 2024–25 income year and onwards.

Changing the original course of action, as announced by the previous Coalition Government, the new tax changes aim to focus on the low and middle income earners to help with the cost-of-living pressures.

About the agent nomination process

The ATO have introduced an agent nomination process which is a new requirement to help ensure only your authorised tax agent, BAS agent or payroll service provider can access your accounts and act on your behalf for your tax and super affairs.

This process only applies when you change an agent or change the authorisations you give your existing agent.

As with any new technology, we have to take the good with the bad. But in the case of artificial intelligence (AI), the can of worms it threatens to open might be unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

Already, the technology is being used by cybercriminals to swindle people of their money, and the methods they’re using are getting increasingly difficult to detect.

Here are some of the ways AI is being deployed and what you can do to help keep your finances safe