As a Mortgage Broker, my team and I would love to help you refinance and get a better rate. That said - you can always ASK your Bank for a better rate. I went into my bank to setup a New Business Bank account and they said "can we review your home loan". I said "Well we got a discount maybe a year ago", but we looked - and they gave an extra 0.16% on all loans. Doesn't sound like much but on $750,000 0.16% is $1,200 and on $1m it is $1,600. Or per $100k it is $160. This is PER YEAR. I could probably chose to lower my repayment, but I'm going to keep it AS IS - meaning that the EXTRA (which I'm not missing) will not be applied to PRINCIPAL - so it will cumulatively help me pay down my home loan quicker. So its not just $1,000 a year x 20 years left on your home loan = $20,000. It could be a lot more (maybe even $35k or $45k).

Thanks for being some of the first people to join the group. I just wanted to encourage you to introduce yourself - and feel free to post if you have any questions. I'll be adding a lot more to the Classroom (Resources including Quick Videos, Spreadsheets, Documents) and the Community (Posts/ Answers to Questions received from In Here and From Prospects & Clients) as we go on. I'd love you to consider inviting others as well. You can use the URL or this shortlink https://shor.by/mib Cheers!

Your employer withholds tax from your salary (called PAYG - Pay As You Go Withholding) on the basic Australian tax tables. If you ticked that you have a HELP debt - they'll withhold an extra 1% ($48k) to 10% ($151k+) from your salary - to try to 'match' the required HELP debt repayment required when you lodge your tax return. Say you earn $155k = that is $15,500 extra they'll withhold. But say you only have nothing or maybe a smaller amount (say 3k) left on your help debt - you can tell them and going forward they won't withhold extra for HELP debt (and the extra will go into your pocket). If you want forced savings - you can tell your employer to split your salary into more than one account. Or simply set up an automatic transfer so you put the "extra" funds into savings. Or of course - put it in your offset account or make an extra repayment from your mortgage.

The ATO have increased the working from home rate from 52c to 67c. BUT...as always - there are a few catches. 1. The ATO now wish to see actual records (rather than estimates we and most other accountants have been preparing). 2. The 67c rate is similar to the previous 80c rate - in that it includes phone and internet. When preparing returns over the last years - we often found the 52c rate was better when there either mobile or internet use (and definitely if there was both mobile and internet). 3. The 52c rate is no longer available to be used - so to get clients the best deduction I think it is likely we will be claiming the actual rates - calculating a portion of the electricity they use - along with mobile and internet. I note that Australian tax is a 'Self Assessment' system - and that our clients have not been audited in the past (with perhaps 6 or 7 exceptions which were expected because of known very large deductions) - so we will work with you to maximise your legal deduction. ATO Document: PCG 2023/1 Claiming a deduction for additional running expenses incurred while working from home - ATO compliance approach https://www.ato.gov.au/law/view/document?DocID=COG/PCG20231/NAT/ATO/00001&PiT=99991231235958 Example 2 - cannot rely on the practical compliance approach Dan must be in the office at least 3 days per week and can either work in the office or from home for the other 2 days per week. Dan only works from home if he does not have client meetings, so he does not always work 2 days per week from home. Hours worked from home = 2 days per week × 8 hours per day × 49 weeks = 784 hours Additional running expenses = 784 hours × 67c = $525

Looking forward to have you join the Make It Better Community! I've created The First Video to welcome you into the community. The Second Video is about what I call "Dumb Tax" - when do you pay it?