Happy New Financial Year!!!! 2024 has finally come to a close and we start our journey of 2025! Thank you to all our clients who have got their 2024 tax returns completed, it is still not too late to get any remaining returns completed. We strongly recommend getting back to us anyone who still has to complete their 2024 return.
In the coming days, we are going to start filling up with appointments to complete the 2025 tax returns, we recommend making an appointment as soon as you can if you would like to see any one of our clients, either by making it online or over the phone, before the time slots fill up. We anticipate that we are going to be very busy in the upcoming months with face-to-face appointments as well as completing end of year BAS’s and any last-minute stragglers! Please keep in mind that 2025 tax information will most likely be readily available from the ATO from mid-July onwards as this is the time frame for employers and other financial institutions to report your income to the tax office. You can simply check to see if your income statements are “tax ready” by logging onto your ATO profile and checking their status online.
Want to win a $50 Fuel Voucher?
We’re excited to announce that we’ve kicked off our monthly fuel card draw again! 😊
Leave us a Google Review and we’ll pop you into our monthly draw to win a fuel card valued at $50.00! Draws will happen at the end of every month with our next draw coming up on 31 July.
Leave a review for our Nerang office here
Or Beenleigh here
You’ve gotta be in it to win it 😉
Messages from the ATO
What you need to do when someone works for you
Employers, make sure your tax and super obligations are in order.
Read more
Changes to car thresholds from 1 July
Find out the new car thresholds that’ll apply for the 2025-26 financial year.
Read more
$20,000 Instant asset write-off for 2024-25
Find out if your business is eligible for the $20,000 instant asset write-off for the 2024-25 income year.
Read more
2025 STP Finalisation
Finalise Your Payroll to Help Your Employees Meet Their Tax Obligations
If you report wages, please ensure that Single Touch Payroll needs to be finalised before the 14th of July 2025 to ensure your employees have the information, they need to lodge their tax returns.
Please be aware that with recent changes to the way your report wages, employers no longer need to send payment summaries to each employee as this is reported to the ATO every time you complete a pay run.
Need help with finalising your STP in Xero? Follow these steps:
- Check all pay runs for the financial year have been posted and have a payment date within the financial year being finalised.
- Confirm all pay runs for the financial year have been successfully filed to the ATO for STP reporting, or if filing errors exist, confirm these errors have been resolved in subsequent pay runs
- Go to the payroll tab and scroll down to Single Touch Payroll Option
- Set the tax year to the financial year you are finalizing and click on ‘Finalisation’
- Select the active and terminated employees to be finalised; either individually or using the
checkbox next to First name to include all. - Once all employees have been reviewed, click Submit finalisation
- On the Confirm & Submit screen:
- Review the business and employee information for accuracy.
- Read and accept the Authorisation to file declaration.
Tick the checkbox to confirm you have read and accept the authorisation to file. Click Submit to ATO to finalise the submission.
Update to Super Guarantee rate.
As of 1 July 2025, the Super Guarantee rate has increased to 12% (From 11.5% in 2024 year). Please make sure you update your superannuation rate in your payroll reporting system to account for this change.
The due date for the June Super Guarantee payment is the 28th of July. Make sure you process this payment well in advance as the payment needs to have been received by the super fund on or prior to this date to be considered paid on time. If you miss this deadline, you will need to lodge a Super Guarantee Charge (SGC) Statement and pay this amount plus interest and admin fees to the ATO. Super paid late and interest charged on this will not be deductible for tax purposes.
Employee Truck Driver Travel Allowance For 2025
The travel allowance for employee truck drivers is to there to provide an allowance for employee truck drivers who incur certain expenses whilst travelling for work. The allowance is there to cover meals, such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, they incur whilst on domestic travel. Domestic travel consists of travelling to capital cities, regional and country areas.
Being one of the most common allowances given to an employee truck driver, it is important for you to ensure that you are aware of the correct amounts and rules regarding claiming this deduction.
Under the tax determination TD 2024/25, employee truck drivers can be exempt from the formal substantiation rules provided they are only claiming up to the reasonable amount. However, you still must provide a basis of your claim when claiming the full reasonable amount for meal expenses. This can be by providing a written diary of all the meals you incurred and when, or providing the number nights you were away overnight travelling for work. It is recommended that you maintain written records to assist in substantiating your deduction claims.
Below are the reasonable amounts provided by the ATO is using for travel allowances for employee truck drivers travelling domestically in the 2024/25 Tax year:
| Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner |
|---|---|---|
| $30.35 | $34.65 | $59.75 |
Furthermore, there are a few key things to remember when you go to claim your travel allowance this tax year:
- Reasonable accommodation and incidental expenses, (like showers and snacks) that is given to the employee must have written records.
- The above amounts must apply to each separate meal, in other words you can’t claim a single amount for the day by aggregating them together.
- The allowance only applies meals consumed during travelling for work, not outside your work hours, so it is important to remember that meal expenses outside work times are not counted. A fatigue management diary can assist you with keeping a record of when you were travelling for work.
Talk To You Soon!
That’s all from us at Plant & Associates for this month!
We look forward to seeing you all in the new year and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out!