Kylie Chant Accounting

21/10/2026

A New Tax on Family Trusts — And What Has Actually Been Announced

From 1 July 2028, income earned by a family trust will carry a minimum tax of 30 per cent. The tax is paid by the trustee. Beneficiaries who receive that income get a credit for it, so nobody pays tax twice on the same dollar.

If everyone who receives trust income is already paying tax at 30 per cent or more, very little changes. The credit covers the trustee’s tax and the outcome is much the same as today.
The change is felt where trust income goes to someone on a low rate. From 2028 that same distribution carries 30 per cent, and the credit cannot be refunded to the person receiving it. The saving simply disappears. You will no longer be able to simply distribute to a company unless we make an election.

What Is Not Caught
A long list of trusts and income types sits outside the new tax. Primary production income is excluded, as is income going to registered charities and deductible gift recipients. Deceased estates are excluded, and so are testamentary trusts set up under a will for genuine estate purposes. Fixed trusts, unit trusts, managed investment trusts and self-managed superannuation funds are not affected at all.

Two Ways Out, and a Deadline Attached to Each
The Government has offered two alternatives to simply paying the new tax.

The first is roll-over relief. For three years from 1 July 2027 you can move the assets of a trust into a company or a fixed trust without triggering an immediate income tax bill. The relief covers Commonwealth income tax, including capital gains tax.

The second is an election. A trust that exists on 1 July 2028 can nominate the beneficiaries who will receive its income, and the fixed percentage each will receive, and the minimum tax then does not apply. The election can only be made in the 2028–29 year, and only once. It can include a company as a fixed beneficiary.

Some of the options depend on entities existing by 1 July 2028, and a trust set up after that date can never make the election at all.

06/10/2026

I am spending time with my little man so will not be in Yarraman office for the school term on Thursdays.

Yarraman will still be open Tuesday and Fridays and Blackbutt Wednesdays.

Sorry everyone but I am always family first.

We will still ensure to have your work always completed on time. I will just be doing some work from home on weekends.

I will be back on Thursdays from December 3rd.

Thankyou for your understanding.

01/10/2026

23/09/2026

Thankyou for everyones thoughts and prayers for our family and the community.

We are safe and house survives another day. I did hear that a lady did lose her house. No lives have been lost.
Firies and choopers are out again this morning and have been working since Monday. We are truly grateful to the people who are putting so many hours in to keep people safe.

22/09/2026

We have to close early due to evacuation notice for our house. We are in the fire zone near Teelah. Sorry everyone

11/09/2026

Two Jobs, One Tax-Free Threshold

Why You Might Owe More Tax Than You Think
If you worked more than one job this year, there is a fair chance your tax return won't land quite the way you expect.

Every Australian gets one tax-free threshold: the first $18,200 you earn each year, on which no tax is payable. When you start a job, your employer asks whether you'd like to claim it.

The problem begins when you answer 'yes' to two employers at the same time.
Each employer then withholds tax as though they're the only one paying you — effectively applying the tax-free threshold twice.

Your take-home pay looks healthy through the year. But you're only entitled to that $18,200 once. When we add both incomes together at year end, the tax actually owed is higher than the amount withheld, and that gap becomes a bill.

This catches people out even when the jobs don't overlap.
A common example: you finish one job, receive a holiday pay payout, then start somewhere new straight away. For a short window, both employers are applying the threshold — giving you two tax-free thresholds for the same period.

There is a second trap. Your second wage stacks on top of your first, which can push that income into a higher tax bracket than either employer accounted for. Again, not enough tax comes out along the way.

The fix is simple going forward: if you're juggling two jobs, claim the tax-free threshold on only one — ideally the higher-paying role — and let the second withhold at the full rate. Each pay may be a little lighter, but you're far less likely to face a surprise bill at tax time.

04/09/2026

What Is Changing With Negative Gearing

From 1 July 2027, negative gearing on residential investment properties will be limited to new builds.
Investors who purchased an established property before 7:30pm AEST on 12 May 2026 retain their existing arrangements until they sell.
Anyone buying an established residential property after that date will no longer be able to offset rental losses against their broader income — losses will be quarantined and can only be applied against future residential property income.
Alongside this, the 50% capital gains tax (CGT) discount will be replaced by inflation-adjusted indexation from 1 July 2027 for most assets, with new builds offered a choice between the old and new arrangements. In short: new properties get the tax benefits.
Established properties purchased after 12 May 2026 do not.

What Investors Should Actually Be Asking
The question is not 'which property gives me the tax benefit?' The question is: 'which property will build the most wealth?' That means focusing on fundamentals — location scarcity, proximity to employment, infrastructure investment, rental demand, and the quality of the land component relative to the building. A new apartment in an oversupplied precinct with negative gearing is still a weaker investment than a well-located established property without it.
If the loss of negative gearing on an established property creates genuine serviceability pressure, that is a real constraint worth planning around. But if the numbers work without the deduction, the long-term growth case for quality established property remains compelling.
Tax rules change. Good locations do not.

02/09/2026

"But I Can't Do My Job Without It"
The Three Questions Every Deduction Must Answer

Every accountant hears it. I have to wear a suit to see clients. The army makes me keep my hair short. I pay a parking fine most days because there is nowhere else to stop. I put the business logo on my car.
Every one of those statements can be completely true. The expense really is unavoidable. You really would be worse off at work without it. And it still may not be deductible.
That is the part that surprises people. There is no rule in the tax law that says if it is essential, you can claim it. Essential is not the test. It is only the first question of three, and plenty of expenses sail through the first one and fail the next two.

Question One: Is It Connected to Your Work?
Do you spend this money because of how you earn your income? For most of the examples above, the honest answer is yes. This is the question clients focus on, and it is usually the one they are right about.

Question Two: Is It Really a Private Cost, or Something You Are Buying to Keep?
The law will not let you claim an expense that is private in nature, or one that is really the purchase of a lasting asset.
A suit is conventional clothing — you have to be dressed for the day whether or not you are working, so it is treated as private. Keeping your hair short is grooming, and grooming stays private no matter who insists on it. Buying the car is acquiring an asset rather than incurring a running cost. And putting a logo on the door does not turn the drive to work into a work trip — that journey was private before the sticker went on, and it stays private afterwards.

Question Three: Is There a Rule That Specifically Blocks It?
Sometimes the law simply names an expense and says no. Fines and penalties are the clearest example: the daily parking ticket is not deductible, full stop, no matter how impossible your run would be without it. Entertaining clients, most club memberships and paying a partner's travel costs are blocked the same way.

An expense has to clear all three questions. Being unavoidable only helps with the first.

16/08/2026

The 30% Floor on Capital Gains

Why the Old Playbook No Longer Works
From 1 July 2027, the 50% CGT discount will be replaced — for individuals, trusts and partnerships — by two mechanisms working together: indexation of the asset's cost base, and a minimum 30% tax on the resulting net gain. Indexation is genuinely helpful: you are taxed only on the real, above-inflation gain. The 30% floor is where the planning landscape changes.

How the floor works
The floor sets a minimum effective rate. If your gain would otherwise be taxed above 30%, nothing changes — you pay your marginal rate. If your rate on the gain would fall below 30%, the floor tops it up to 30%. Critically, it is calculated on the gain itself, independently of the rest of your tax position. That removes a series of familiar strategies from the table:
• Realising in a low-income year no longer helps. Deferring a sale to a year when you expect a lower marginal rate will not get you below 30% on the gain.
• Large concessional super contributions no longer help. Catch-up contributions and the two-year contribution-reserving strategy can reduce your taxable income — but not the tax on the gain below 30%.
• Even substantial tax losses won't help. Carried-forward revenue losses and other deductions can shelter your other income, but the gain itself is still taxed at a minimum of 30%.

There is one important exception.
People receiving means-tested income support — such as the Age Pension or JobSeeker — are exempt from the floor in any year they receive a payment. For them, the familiar strategies still work: realising in a low-income year, making deductible super contributions and applying tax losses can each reduce the tax on a gain, exactly as they do today.

Two things to keep in perspective
First, the 30% applies to the net gain, not the headline figure. Indexation lifts your cost base, and capital losses still reduce the gain before the floor applies — so the base it bites on is smaller than the raw profit.
Second, the new regime applies to assets you already own. Growth accruing up to 1 July 2027 keeps the existing 50% discount under the transitional rules, but all growth from 1 July 2027 onwards — even on long-held assets — is caught.
The real levers now are indexation, capital losses and the timing of a sale relative to 1 July 2027 — not the income-shifting strategies that used to work.
If you are holding assets with significant unrealised gains, now is the time to review your position.

20/07/2026

We are so excited to welcome Kylie Chant Accounting on board as a Gold Sponsor of the Yarraman Festival this year!

Since setting up shop in Yarraman back in 2023, Kylie and her team, all locals themselves, have made supporting this town part of who they are backing local businesses and giving back through generous donations to local charities and groups year after year. Kylie has supported us for the past few years without fail, and that kind of heart is exactly what makes Kylie such a valued part of this community.

To Kylie and the whole team, thank you does not quite cover it, your generosity means the absolute world to us and to this festival!

Join us Saturday 1 August, 10am to 3pm at Yarraman Station Park, for a day packed with food trucks, market stalls, a free petting zoo, free face painting and so much more for the whole family, furry friends included!💛