Tax deductions on flights home?

[Rooster]

Hi guys,

I live and work in London...for now. If i fly home to sort my tax out lodge my return with accountant etc. Is that flight tax deductible?

Any help greatly appreciated

Rooster

 

[sue78]

Hi guys,

I live and work in London...for now. If i fly home to sort my tax out lodge my return with accountant etc. Is that flight tax deductible?

Any help greatly appreciated

Rooster

If you claim that you are going to inspect your IP's then it is...maybe not 100% but definately is. My in-laws did this for years.

 

[geoffw]

I live and work in London...for now. If i fly home to sort my tax out lodge my return with accountant etc. Is that flight tax deductible?

If that's all you did on your trip, then you perhaps could. But it would be difficult to claim that for a visit of more than a couple of days, then all you did was visit your accountant.

Here's an extract from the 2005-06 Rental Properties Guied from the ATO

Apportionment of travel expenses

Where travel related to your rental property is combined with a holiday or other private activities, you may need to apportion the expenses.

If you travel to inspect your rental property and combine this with a holiday, you need to take into account the reasons for your trip. If the main purpose of your trip is to have a holiday and the inspection of the property is incidental to that main purpose, you cannot claim a deduction for the cost of the travel. However, you may be able to claim local expenses directly related to the property inspection and a proportion of accommodation expenses.

Example: Apportioning travel expenses

The Hitchmans also owned another rental property in a resort town on the north coast of Queensland. They spent $1,000 on airfares and $1,500 on accommodation when they travelled from their home in Perth to the resort town, mainly for the purpose of holidaying, but also to inspect the property. They also spent $50 on taxi fares for the return trip from the hotel to the rental property. The Hitchmans spent one day on matters relating to the rental property and nine days swimming and sightseeing.

No deduction can be claimed for any part of the $1,000 airfares.

The Hitchmans can claim a deduction for the $50 taxi fare.

A deduction for 10% of the accommodation expenses (10% of $1,500 – that is, $150) would be considered reasonable in the circumstances. The total travel expenses the Hitchmans can claim are therefore $200 ($50 taxi fare and $150 accommodation). Accordingly, Mr and Mrs Hitchman can each claim a deduction of $100.

I suspect the same guidelines would apply for a trip to see your accountant.

 

[Pushka]

Wouldnt a meeting with your accountant be considered a personal cost (like travelling to work each day) and not tax deductible?

 

[TheCamel]

"the cost of managing your tax affairs..."

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/c...002/013/009/006&mnu=1220&mfp=001/002&st=&cy=1


Says you can claim the cost of managing your tax affairs, including travel.
No examples provided to align this with your circumstances though. Email your accountant and ask them ?

may need to apportion costs similarly to as described by GW above

 

[Mry]

The travel would be 100% deductible if that is what you spent each day in Australia for that purpose, but the post on apportioning travel expenses should be considered.

Since we accountants wrote the tax law, almost anything to do with an accountant, such as getting tax returns done, travel to, postage, etc is fully deductible. In fact, you can even claim under the cents per km claim to visit your accountant by car, even if you have gone over the 5000km cents per km limit!

 

[TheCamel]

what if you spent 1 day in australia, say, in melbourne, checking your property and meeting with your professionals there

the second day driving from melbourne to canberra

the third day talking to your accountant in canberra, maybe viewing your IP in canberra,

the 4th day driving to sydney and investigating your IP there

the 5th day flying out

 

[Pushka]

Must get my accountant to move to Queensland....

 

[Rooster]

Thanks guys,

Great info once again.

Rooster