Ready, Set, Go

The race to tax time doesn’t need to be a sprint and there are plenty of ways to keep your tax on track year to year

New year’s resolutions are often viewed as meaningless, bar the exceptional few people who have enough discipline to stick to personal goals and achieve them. What’s always curious to me is the percentage of the population that makes new year’s resolutions related to finance and then fails to fulfil these self-made promises. I’ve been guilty in this regard too and it’s disappointing, because who wouldn’t want more money in the bank, more super saved, a new home purchased or some extra money invested?

The good news is there are multiple chances every year to fix your finances or reset your financial goals. And if you feel as if you’re racing towards tax time, now is one of those chances.

Look at the bigger picture

The Australian Taxation Office says in its most recent taxation statistics report that 16.5 million tax returns were filed for the 2016-17 financial year. This included returns from 13.9 million individuals and 970,000 companies, as well as super funds, partnerships and trusts.

At an individual level, here are 13.9 million opportunities for Australians to review their financial position. Tax doesn’t always relate to our day-to-day money issues, but many elements in a tax return could encourage us to think about how to better approach our daily spending, saving and investing.

According to the ATO’s 2016-17 report, the nation’s tax liabilities were $375.2 billion. Individual income tax liabilities accounted for 51.2% ($192.1 billion) and companies 20.2% ($75.7 billion).

The average taxable income for individuals was $59,014 and the median (middle number) was $44,382. The average tax deduction was $2631 and the median was $700.