The Aevum Accounting Podcast

Moved to Australia in the last year or so? A few things work differently in the year you arrive. And if you're doing your own return, it's due on Monday 2 November this year, because 31 October falls on a Saturday. If you'd like a registered tax agent to do it and you haven't used one before, get in touch before Saturday 31 October. Mia and Leo walk through what a new arrival needs...

The trust tax is in Parliament. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 3) Bill 2026 went into the House of Representatives on 14 October, the same day our last episode went out. It has been sent to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee, which is due to report on 13 November. It is not law yet. Mia and Leo are joined by tax strategist Harvey Green to go through what the bill actually says...

Part two of two. Last week was your property. This week it's the business you own, and the same date: 1 July 2027. The quick recap: from 1 July 2027 the fifty per cent capital gains discount goes to zero for individuals and trusts, replaced by indexation and a thirty per cent minimum tax. The reset protects growth you've already had. Everything is treated as sold on 30 June 2027 and bought...

Part one of two. Everything here turns on a date that hasn't happened yet: 1 July 2027. If you own an investment property, something happens to it that day whether you do anything or not, and most people have heard the bad half of it and not the good half. The bad half: from 1 July 2027 the fifty per cent capital gains discount goes to zero for individuals and trusts. In its place your cost ba...

Part three of three, and this is the technical half, where the real money is. There are three ways to value meal entertainment. Most small businesses pick the easy one. For most of them it's the wrong one, and we cover all three, including the twelve-week register almost nobody uses. Mia and Leo are joined by tax strategist Harvey Green. The actual method is the default, so if you've never...

Part two of three. Last week was your own team and the Christmas party. This week it's everyone who doesn't work for you. Same rule the series hangs off: entertainment isn't deductible and you can't claim the GST, unless you pay fringe benefits tax on it. Last week that mostly worked in your favour. This week it doesn't, because fringe benefits tax only applies to employees, an...

It's party-booking season, so here's the question every business owner asks in October: can I claim it? This is part one of three, and it runs on one rule. Entertainment isn't tax deductible and you can't claim the GST on it, unless you pay fringe benefits tax on it. One way or the other, never both. Then the twist that catches everyone. When an exemption applies to entertainment,...

You may have read that the Treasurer dropped the trust tax. He didn't. What happened on 3 September is that the draft legislation landed, and with it a new way to stay out of the tax without restructuring. The 30% minimum tax on discretionary trusts still starts on 1 July 2028, and it's the last of the big Budget measures still to pass. Mia and Leo are joined by tax strategist Harvey Green...

Payday Super went live on 1 July. Two months in, the pattern of what's going wrong is clear — and it's rarely what employers expected. Almost everyone gets this backwards: it isn't a cost increase. The rate is still 12%, the same people qualify, and for most employers the amount is identical to last year. What changed is the timing. And the timing is what's catching people. Mia and...

Three different things, one confusing name. The Medicare levy, the Medicare levy surcharge, and private health insurance all interact — and getting them mixed up is quietly costing people thousands. In this episode, Mia and Leo separate them properly: who actually pays, who's exempt, what kind of cover gets you out of the surcharge, and the policies that look like the real thing but do nothing...

You lodged. You were assessed. You paid. And then a second bill turns up with a number on it you weren't expecting. That's Division 293, and it's probably the most misunderstood assessment the ATO issues. In this episode, Mia and Leo are joined by tax strategist Harvey Green to unpack who it catches, how it's actually calculated, and the two payment traps that cost people real mone...

You've seen the headline: a $1,000 instant tax deduction, no receipts required. What almost nobody tells you is what it's actually worth in your pocket — and the answer is closer to $200 than $1,000. In this episode, Mia and Leo cut through the noise on the new standard deduction for work-related expenses. It's now law, it starts with the 2026-27 return, and it will genuinely help mill...

Everyone argued about the $3 million super tax. Almost nobody read what actually passed. Division 296 is now law, it commenced on 1 July 2026, and the version on the statute book is meaningfully different from the version that caused all the noise — which means a lot of people are still planning around rules that were dropped. In this episode, Mia and Leo are joined by tax strategist Harvey Green...

The ATO has stopped waiting for you to make a mistake. It now uses data matching, artificial intelligence and third-party reporting to find errors before most people even realise they've made one — and this year it added a brand-new warning to the list: don't get your tax advice from a chatbot. In this episode, Mia and Leo walk through the ATO's full hit list for Tax Time 2026. What&#3...

Everyone knows they should use an accountant at tax time. What most people don't realise is there are two completely different ways to do it with us, and one of them never involves leaving your couch. There's also a stubborn myth that the cheaper email option is a "lite" version of the real thing. It isn't. In this episode, Mia and Leo pull back the curtain on exactly how Aev...

Tradies and construction workers spend more of their own money on work than almost anyone — the tools, the safety gear, the ute, the tickets. So why do so many hand the tax office hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars they never needed to? In this episode, Mia and Leo give you the full rundown: every deduction you can claim, the ones you can't, and the myths that quietly cost you at tax tim...

Real estate agents run their own small business inside someone else's brand. You drive everywhere, work every weekend, and spend your own money to win the listing — so why do so many agents claim the bare minimum and hand the tax office thousands they never needed to? In this episode, Mia and Leo are back in the studio to help agents claim every dollar they're entitled to. We revisit the R...

The negatively geared investment property has been a cornerstone of Australian wealth-building for a generation. Then the 2026-27 Federal Budget took a big red pen to the rulebook — and most investors have no idea the game has already changed. In this episode, Mia and Leo are joined by tax strategist Harvey Green to unpack the biggest shake-up to property investing in years. We revisit the Investm...

Nurses and midwives — clock back on, it's time for your tax second opinion! 🩺 In Part 1 we covered the basics. Now Mia and Leo are back on the ward for the night shift debrief, separating the deductions you're genuinely entitled to from the tearoom myths that quietly cost you money every single year. First, a quick handover from Episode 12 — the ATO's three golden rules, car and trave...

Planning for the financial future of a vulnerable loved one is one of the most important things a family can do, but the dense legalese and rigid tax rules can make it feel like trying to read a textbook underwater. In this comprehensive guide, Mia and Leo break down the complex intersection of Australian tax law, social security, and asset planning. Stripping away the jargon, they compare three e...

Are you a professional firefighter taking tax advice from the station lunchroom? It’s time to separate the facts from the costly fiction. In Part 2 of our Firehouse Drill series, Mia, Leo, and resident tax strategist Harvey Green sound the alarm on the ATO’s latest advanced guidelines for the fire service. We start with a rapid-fire summary of the golden rules from Episode 10, and then dive straig...

What happens when you take the biggest, most common tax questions from the community and put them in the hot seat? You get a definitive, no-jargon roadmap to optimizing your next return. Recently, Aevum Accounting founder Ben De Rosa sat down with Glen James on the Money Money Money podcast for a massive live Q&A. Today, Mia, Leo, and resident tax strategist Harvey Green hijack that exact tran...

Are you a police officer taking tax advice from the lunchroom? It’s time to separate fact from fiction. In Part 2 of our Police Debrief series, Mia and Leo hit the station to break down the ATO’s latest guidelines for law enforcement. We start with a rapid-fire summary of the golden rules from Episode 10 (covering cars, commutes, and uniforms), and then dive straight into the most highly debated d...

Are you a high-earning IT contractor, management consultant, or engineer? If you are using a Pty Ltd company or a Family Trust to artificially cap your tax rate or split your income with family members, you might be walking directly into an ATO audit. This week, Mia, Leo, and resident tax strategist Harvey Green unpack the incredibly complex—and high-stakes—web of ATO legislation targeting Individ...

The 2026-27 Federal Budget is here, and it is being called the most significant transformation of Australia's tax system in a quarter of a century. From the end of the 50% Capital Gains Tax discount to a massive crackdown on Family Trusts, the rules of wealth accumulation are fundamentally shifting. In this extended deep-dive episode, Mia, Leo, and tax strategist Harvey Green break down exactly wh...