How many hours did it take you to prepare and complete this schedule?

Warning:

This information may not apply to the current year. Check the content carefully to ensure it is applicable to your circumstances.

End of attention

The Tax Office is committed to reducing the costs involved in complying with your tax obligations. Your response to this item will help us monitor these costs as closely as possible.

Write the number of hours it took you to prepare and complete your Business and professional items schedule for individuals 2005 (PDF 285KB)This link will download a file at S in the Taxpayer's signature block on your schedule.

When completing this item consider the time, rounded up to the nearest hour, you spent:

• reading the instructions
• collecting the necessary information to complete this schedule
• making any necessary calculations
• completing the schedule
• putting the tax affairs of your business in order so the information can be handed to your tax agent.

Your answer should reflect the time your business spent preparing and completing your schedule and the time spent by your tax agent and any other person whose assistance you obtained.

If you are a tax agent preparing this schedule on behalf of your client, include your time and a reliable estimate of their time.

Records you need to keep

You must keep records of most transactions in English for five years after you prepared or obtained them, or five years after you completed the transactions or acts to which they relate, whichever is the later. Taxation Ruling TR 96/7: Record keeping – section 262A – general principles clarifies the record-keeping obligations of small businesses, particularly for cash transactions.

The Tax Office is helping small business operators meet their record-keeping obligations by reviewing their record-keeping practices. These reviews start with a telephone call or a brief visit to the business premises. The process is explained, you can ask questions and an interview is arranged for a later date.

Some of the more significant record-keeping problems identified by the Tax Office are failure to:

• record cash income and expenditure
• account for personal drawings
• record goods for your own use
• separate private expenses from business expenses
• keep valid tax invoices for creditable acquisitions when registered for GST
• keep adequate stock records
• keep adequate records to substantiate motor vehicle claims.

For additional information, see Record keeping for small business (NAT 3029).

To find out how to get this publication, or to get a CD-ROM of our electronic record-keeping package e-Record, see More information.

Hobby or business?

It is important to determine whether you are carrying on a business or pursuing a hobby, sport or recreational activity that does not produce income.

In general, you are considered to carry on a business if the activity:

• has commenced
• has a significant commercial purpose or character
• has a purpose of profit as well as a prospect of profit
• is carried out in a manner that is characteristic of the industry
• is repeated, regular or continuous
• cannot be more accurately described as a hobby, recreation or sporting activity.

For additional information, see Starting your own business. Primary producers should also see Taxation Ruling TR 97/11 – Am I carrying on a business of primary production?

Remember

When you have completed your Business and professional items schedule 2004-05 (PDF 285KB)This link will download a file, you will need to transfer:

• your Net PSI amount (if any) from A item P1 on your schedule to A item 13 on page 9 of your tax return (supplementary section)
• your net income or loss from business amounts from Y and Z item P8 on your schedule to B and C (respectively) item 14 on page 10 of your tax return (supplementary section).