1. It will ensure you are recording all of your expenses and therefore you will be able to report and claim all of
the deductions you are entitled to.
2. If you are in the unenviable position of being subject to an audit by the tax office, good record keeping will
ensure that you can get through such an audit very easily and without a lot of fuss.
Over the next few weeks we will be providing you with some record keeping tips that could save you a lot of stress and assist in minimising your tax bill.
1. Set aside some time a each day/week to record your expenses
As an educator you incur many different types of expenditure, particularly small expenditure which over the course of a year could add up to hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars.
For example, from time to time you may need to share some of your personal food or other items with your day care children (even if you do a separate shop for the children). If you don't record such small items on a regular basis, it is easy to forget, and if you leave recording these types of expenses until the end of the month or year it is likely you will not remember to record such transactions. Lets say you miss out on $10 of these types of expenses each week. This can add up to $520 in deductions during the course of a year.
You may wish to spend 5 minutes a day during the children's rest time, or 15-20 minutes once a week. Not only will this assist in recording all of your expenses, it will save you significant time and stress at the end of the year by not having to record a full years worth of receipts all in one go.