Taxing time of the year
We forked out $956m
WORKERS in Cairns postcodes paid a whopping $956.9 million in tax for 2015-16, the latest Australian Taxation Office figures reveal.
The average taxpayer across Far North Queensland postcodes earned $61,008 in salaries, but gave back $13,266 to government coffers.
A Cairns Post data investigation mapped postcodes to local government areas to provide the first estimate and comparison of the tax haul from areas across the country.
In Cairns, the hardest taxed postcode was 4879 where people paid on average $14,991 against their average salary of $64,860. In Mareeba, taxpayers in the 4881 postcode had the highest average tax bill of $12,885 compared to the average salary $60,930.
In Cook, Weipa and Napranum the 4874 postcode had the highest average tax bill – people paid on average $21,789 against their average salary of $85,029. On the Tablelands, taxpayers in the 4884 postcode paid on average $14,381 against their average salary of $62,456.
About 69,374 Cairns people claimed $11.3 million in expenses to manage tax affairs.
They also claimed $54.7 million in work-related car expenses and another $16.4 million in work clothing costs. ATO assistant commissioner Kath Anderson named areas where people bungled claims:
Leaving out some income, such as forgetting interest or a temp job
Claiming deductions for personal expenses
Claiming a “standard deduction” on things they haven’t paid for
Claiming personal expenses associated with rental properties
Not keeping receipts or records of their expenses
ATO assistant commissioner Kath Anderson encouraged taxpayers to use the myDeductions tool in the ATO app, which allowed users to take photos of records and then upload the information for their tax agent or use the myTax program.
Ms Anderson said some people also ran into trouble by lodging their claim too early.
“If you wait until mid-August, we will have prefilled most of your income information for you, including pay from employers, and information from the bank.”
She also advised people to steer clear of private expenses such as work travel, personal phone calls and claiming a “standard deduction”.