M J Edwards

03/09/2026

First signs of some thought actually going into the terribly conceived trust law changes. A badly disguised plan to make the most common small business structure completely unworkable and impose more compliance burdens on an already snowed under sector, this legislation is already starting to look so complicated the ATO will have no choice but to bog down the court system with more "test" cases to clarify the myriad of potential issues. Now we have something like "trusts taxed more than companies, and we can potentially tax that income twice more. Except it doesn't apply to these trusts, and those businesses. Oh if you don't actually do the discretionary bit, we may not apply it either. Maybe."
There are a lot or simpler solutions.

Government offers small businesses a trust tax workaround

Those with discretionary trusts can be exempt from the new minimum 30 per cent tax if they agree to hold their trust distributions constant.

21/06/2026

Don't be too keen to lodge your tax return as soon as July 1 hits. As almost everything is prefilled you need to ensure the info has been received and payroll finalised before returns can be prepared. ATO themselves say wait until late July at the earliest. If you have investments may need even longer. They won't accept lodging early as an excuse for inaccuracies or failing to declare an income item.

The ATO reminds taxpayers to wait to lodge their income tax return until pre-fill is complete.

13/05/2026

Matt's early days budget opinion - tax edition (brief version) .

Taxing Trusts. The idea of taxing trusts like companies has been around a very long time. However if you're going to tax trusts like companies then use the same tax rate. A higher rate is clearly an 'up yours' to the structure used by millions of smsll businesses.

CGT. (ignoring all other issues except tax). I remember indexation. It was considered a fair way to calculate a profit. Sale price less the cost base in today's value. However, to tax this at a minimum of 30% is nothing short of outright theft.

Negative gearing. It may just be my region, but I haven't seen a negatively geared property in years, thanks to the extremely high rents being charged. Will the loss be quarantined or just totally lost? Regardless, implementing a policy that was dramatically dumped so quickly after implementation decades ago doesn't seem that informed.

Speaking of red herrings, enjoy your extra 68 cents per day

08/05/2026

Have you ever had trouble registering for something using your WA licence as ID, only to find it gets flagged as "invalid"? Turns out WA department of transport "lock" licences. You need to log onto the DOT website and "remove licence block" per below. It will then function as electronic ID. Don't forget to lock it again