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Chris Hemsworth has won over many a female fan since his 2007 screen debut as Kim Hyde in Home & Away.

And breaking into the Hollywood actor pack, the boy from the bay proved just as victorious, landing a hulking role as Marvel's Thor. But Hemsworth's personal style got a re-wiring too; shift...

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End Of Financial Year Expenses: What Australians can and can’t claim

Expenses you can claim when working from home

If you work (or during lockdown, worked) from home, you will be able to claim a deduction for the additional running expenses you incur. These include:

Electricity expenses associated with heating, cooling and lighting the area from which you are working and running items you are using for work
Cleaning costs for a dedicated work area
Phone and internet expenses
Computer consumables (for example, printer paper and ink) and stationery
Home office equipment, including computers, printers, phones, furniture and furnishings – you can claim either the full cost of items up to $300 or decline in value for items over $300.

Expenses you can’t claim when working from home

If you are (or were) working from home only due to COVID-19, you can’t claim:

Occupancy expenses such as mortgage interest, rent and rates
The cost of coffee, tea, milk and other general household items your employer may otherwise have provided you with at work

Calculating running expenses

There are three ways you can choose to calculate your additional running expenses:

Shortcut method ─ claim a rate of 80 cents per work hour for all additional running expenses
Fixed-rate method ─ claim all of these; a rate of 52 cents per work hour for heating, cooling, lighting, cleaning and the decline in value of office furniture; the work-related portion of your actual costs of phone and internet expenses, computer consumables, stationery and the work-related portion of the decline in value of a computer, laptop or similar device.
Actual cost method ─ claim the actual work-related portion of all your running expenses, which you need to calculate on a reasonable basis.

For more information, click here.

Shortcut method

You can claim a deduction of 80 cents for each hour you work from home due to COVID-19 as long as you are:

Working from home to fulfil your employment duties and not just carrying out minimal tasks such as occasionally checking emails or taking calls
Incurring additional deductible running expenses as a result of working from home

You also don’t have to have a separate or dedicated area of your home set aside for working, such as a private study, to claim using this method.The ATO says the shortcut method rate covers all deductible running expenses, including:

Electricity for lighting, cooling or heating and running electronic items used for work (for example your computer), and gas heating expenses
The decline in value and repair of capital items, such as home office furniture and furnishings
Cleaning expenses
Your phone costs, including the decline in value of the handset
Your internet costs
Computer consumables, such as printer ink
Stationery
The decline in value of a computer, laptop or similar device

“You do not have to incur all of these expenses, but you must have incurred additional expenses in some of those categories as a result of working from home due to COVID-19,” reads the ATO guidance page.

“If you use the shortcut method to claim a deduction for your additional running expenses, you cannot claim a further deduction for any of the expenses listed above.”

You must also keep a record of the number of hours you have worked from home as a result of COVID-19 (e.g. timesheets, diary notes, rosters. etc).The ATO adds “if you use the shortcut method to claim a deduction and you lodge your 2019–20 tax return through myGov or a tax agent, you must include the note ‘COVID-hourly rate’ in your tax return.”

Records you must keep

If you use the shortcut method, you only need to keep a record of the hours you worked at home, for example timesheets or diary notes.If you use the other methods, you must also keep a record of the number of hours you worked from home along with records of your expenses.

Bonus ways to maximize your return

Renew your Playboy subscription

It sounds too good to be true, but if you have spare EOFY cash, consider paying for certain items now (from magazine subscriptions to the interest on your investment property) that you’ll use next financial year. “You can claim a tax deduction this year for expenses which wholly or partly relate to next year,” explains Mark Chapman, Director of Tax Communications at H&R Block.An often overlooked way of doing this is making a personal contribution into your super fund. Provided the total amount of your contributions (including the contributions made on your behalf by your employer) does not exceed $25,000, this can be a great way to simultaneously boost your nest egg and claim a tax deduction.

Develop a Messiah complex

Yes: you may have spent the last 51 weeks of the year avoiding eye contact with do-gooders wanting your signature in the street, but now is the perfect time to rediscover your latent Mother Teresa. The question isn’t: would you rather someone in need got your money or the ATO. It’s: would you rather you got your money (back) or the ATO. Right?Remember: there’s no limit to how much you can donate and claim back—as long as you have the receipts to prove it. Just make sure you don’t claim for donations that could give you some form of benefit (e.g. raffle tickets or tickets to a charity dinner).

Quit while you’re ahead

Sold an investment property and made a few (million) bucks? Consider looking at investments you have sitting at a loss and selling those off too, because the resulting capital losses can be offset against the capital gain.

Invest in your business

If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner with an aggregate turnover of less than $20 million, you can buy something worth up to $20,000 for your company and immediately write it off against your business tax bill. New technology, stationary, furniture, a time share in a Ferrari—as long as you can justify it, the market’s your oyster.

Sacrifice your salary

If you use your mobile phone, tablet or laptop predominately for work (provided your employer allows you to), you can opt to “salary sacrifice” these items once a year (upgrading your equipment so you are using the latest technology).Doing this means you are buying these items with your pre-tax income (you’ll be taxed less), and if your employer is registered for GST you should also get the benefits of GST on the items. Doing this saves you tax and means your employer doesn’t have to pay a ‘fringe benefits’ tax (on the basis that the items are mainly used for work purposes) and you’ll save on the GST (if your employer is registered for GST).According to Fernando Prieto, our friendly CA at Solid Partners Accountants & Advisors, “There is some administration behind this and implementing it usually depends on your employers agreeing to it and making sure you meet all the requirements. But if you meet the requirements it’s a great way to fund the purchase of some technology you’ve been holding off on, or switching to a sim only plan and improving your cashflow.”

A word of warning

Fernando also told us, “This year the ATO is paying particular attention to work related clothing deductions and work related car expenses.” Which means you need to carefully consider whether you are eligible to claim the work related clothing deduction and car expenses (referring to your occupation specific guide—on the ATO website). A common mistake, he says is people claiming suits that don’t have a company logo.

“Suits for office workers aren’t deductible unless they have a company logo, so you can’t claim dry cleaning etc. – even if you are expected to wear a suit as part of your occupation.”

You also need to, “Make sure you keep the correct records/substantiation requirements for those claims (i.e. if you claim a proportion of your mobile expenses, you have to calculate your business call percentage for one month’s phone bill in that financial year).”

Extra advice

The application of deductions varies greatly between occupations, so the easiest way to maximise your deductions is to look at the guidance the ATO provides for specific occupations and determine if any of those deductions apply to you.Even if your occupation isn’t specifically listed, according to Fernando, “You should be able to find an occupation that is very similar to yours and then use it as a guide (i.e. if there’s no guidance for accountants, you could refer to the business professionals guide).”There are 30+ guides, and the important things to do are; get familiar with what you can (and can’t) claim specific to your occupation, keep the correct records and claim the correct amount.Disclaimer: The information provided below is general in nature and should not be relied upon by individual tax payers – as it does not take into consideration your specific circumstances.

How much do I need to get started?

The ASX dictates that an individual investor will need at least $500 in one given company to get started. This is the amount set by the bourse in case everything goes belly up, and basically covers administration costs.

However, you should have more than $500 to get started.

Not only does this allow you to buy more than one parcel of shares for crucial diversification; it’s also a signal that you’re serious about making a go of this as a side-hustle.

You should only really invest what you’re willing to lose, and if you can’t afford to lose more than $500 then maybe share trading isn’t for you (although there are a few low-cost ETFs which cater for you).

In any case, if you’re serious about making share trading a side-hustle rather than a weekend giggle, you should be looking at about $5,000.

The magical figure

Why $5,000? According to the latest ABS data, the median income in Australia is $1066 per week.

If you think of a “side-hustle” as 10 per cent of income, you should be aiming for about $106 per week.

If you’re investing purely as a dividend yield play, then this equates to about $5000 per year. Given the average dividend yield is about 4 per cent, you’d need a portfolio worth $125,000.

But, more likely than not, if you’re thinking of share trading as a side-hustle, you’re not in it for the accrual of dividends — you’re in it for the profit from active trading.

The return you’ll get from trading is up to the skill you have as a trader, but as a rough guide the ASX all ordinaries returned 8.66 per cent in 2017, a loss of 7.11 per cent last year, and so far this year has returned 14.4 per cent.

In trading, a lot is about the timing.

So if you wanted to make 10 per cent of the median income of Australia, assuming an 8 per cent return, you’d want a portfolio of $62,500.

But, that’s a heck of a lot of money and doesn’t take into account dividend returns.

So, you should probably look to invest $2000-5000 to start and see how that goes before investing tens of thousands of dollars.

Where should I invest?

If you’re here, you’re probably looking to invest in shares — but there are a few instruments available to you as investment options.

The first, obviously, is the shares themselves.

But exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) have become increasingly popular as investment vehicles for people looking for market exposure. These typically aren’t traded in the same way shares are though, as they’re set up specifically to track an index and not the fortunes of one particular company.

“I knew Afterpay would be huge as I peeked into the layby room at a high end fashion store … and saw how big this problem was for retailers,” (Angie Ellis).

Some even offer buy-in prices as little as $100, making them ideal for first-timers in the market.

In much the same way, real estate investment trusts (REITs) are traded on the market, but are inherently pegged to the value of the real estate market.

For those looking to take a highly speculative punt, contracts for difference (CFDs) may be for you — essentially a bet on the future value of any financial instrument — whether that’s a particular share or the value of oil.

Where you invest is entirely up to you, but should you choose to load up in shares, we have a few bits of advice before you get started.

Going on a dry run

If you’re new to the world of trading, then it’s a great idea to simulate your strategy for about six months before you dive in with your own money.

You can do this by signing up to the ASX’s sharemarket game, which runs twice a year.

It will give you access to 200 stocks to virtually trade in, with an investment pool worth $50,000.

It’s a great way of testing your market strategy against what happens in the market in real-time — and will give you a taste of what to expect.

You can also set up your own “game” by building a watchlist of stocks you might be interested in and track them over six months to see how it’s playing out.

I’m ready to invest now — how do I do it?

If you think you’re ready to invest and you’ve drawn up your investment strategy, it’s time to start trading.

Unfortunately, you can’t just rock up to the ASX office and order some shares — you need to go through a broker.

Brokers will buy and place trades on your behalf, and charge a fee for doing so.

Depending on how involved they get (some will offer advice, for example), they’ll charge different rates — either as a percentage of each trade or a flat fee.

Our advice is to shop around to see what’s right for you.

Online trading

Increasingly, the art of broking is being conducted entirely online with people effectively able to process their own trades.

The broker, legally, is still placing the trades, but for all intents and purposes the user is trading.

There are several online platforms available, but these are the ones Stockhead regulars use and recently voted on for us:

There’s a lot more information on what they cost and how easy they are to use here.

Now you know what you want to trade, where to trade it, and how to trade it, it’s time for a few general tips to avoid costly mistakes.

Research, research, research

It turns out that trusting Johnno from the pub’s opinion on the hot stock of the day isn’t the key to becoming a sustainable trader.

Instead, good traders will do their own quantitative and qualitative research on what makes a good investment.

The quantitative will go to looking at metrics such as price to earnings ratio, PEG ratio, or debt-to-equity when evaluating a trade.

The qualitative will look at things like the industry a company is in, the background of directors, or the underlying commodity the company is trading in.

By doing research, you give yourself a better opportunity to buy at the bottom of the value cycle.

Generally speaking, buy what you know

You may have heard a lot about FAANG stocks (or the ASX equivalent, WAAAX stocks) and want in on the tech action, but not know a thing about how tech is commercialised.

In our humble opinion, you probably should be trading tech stocks for the sake of it in that case.

One of Warren Buffett’s golden rules is that you should always trade what you know — and we can’t disagree.

Also: panic buying or panic selling is the key to losing your shirt, so generally it’s advisable to only trade in what you can afford to lose — which is why we recommended a starting figure of $5,000 and then building from there.

If you only invest what you can afford to lose, you can avoid the sort of emotion-driven trading that is generally a garbage idea.

As we stated before, if you can’t afford to lose $5,000, then maybe share trading isn’t for you — as it’s inherently higher-risk than holding money in a savings account.

Don’t take our word for it, here’s the expert

Angie Ellis has been trading stocks for the last 15 years, full-time for the last five.

She’s a regular winner of ASX share trading races and is a seasoned small cap investor, so she knows her stuff.

But even she makes mistakes.

“I would say the biggest mistake I’ve made is buying too much into the story of a stock and not watching my stops,” she told Stockhead.

Ellis says she sees too many investors get into the market without a clear plan of what happens when things go wrong.

“People don’t watch their stops, and they don’t have a trading plan that they have back-tested.”

She also said that traders, including herself, could be impatient with smaller cap stocks.

“I often exit a few times only to buy back in and then it finally takes off. Sometimes you can be too early and the market may take a while to catch on.”

Ellis said the best part of trading stocks was doing the research to look for opportunities in the smaller end of the market — and to do so she uses a mix of real-world experience and conference intelligence to inform her choices.

“I knew Afterpay would be huge as I peeked into the layby room at a high end fashion store at Chadstone and saw how big this problem was for retailers. Also my hairdresser and all her friends were obsessed with Afterpay!”

“I also like to talk to and meet management, contact competitors and customers to understand the business… Finally, I attend IMARC, Microcap conference, Techknow and wholesale investor events.”

Tax implications

Remember, if you trade right you’ll be making a capital gain, which brings capital gains tax into play.

There are also tax implications on dividends from share trading (although there are fewer thanks to the recent federal election result).

The tax levied on capital gains and dividends can be enough to dampen the whole exercise altogether, so make sure you talk through the tax implications of trading with a qualified accountant or business advisor.

The final word

Trading in stocks can be exciting and profitable, or terrifying and ruinous. It all depends on what approach you take to investment.

A studied and cautious approach to trading sets you up for the long-haul, and sets apart those who are looking for a stable side-income from those who trade on weekends and troll on message boards.

Whatever you decide to do, we hope we’ve given you a couple of pointers to mull over before going lock-stock into trading.

This story was originally published on Stockhead.

In This Story…

Don’t Let Anyone Tell You What To Wear
Learn How To Mix Ugly With Sleek
Throw Your Belt In The Trash
Use Small Accessories To Spice Up A Plain Look
Don’t Obsess Over Where Or How Your Clothes Sit On You
Know When Enough Is Enough
Go Against The Grain
Colour Co-Ordinate With Care

Don’t Let Anyone Tell You What To Wear

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gianluca Vacchi (@gianlucavacchi) on Mar 26, 2019 at 12:47pm PDT

As Reggaeton loving Instagram sensation Gianluca Vacchi reveals, you will never be a Fashion Maverick by following the status quo.

Learn How To Mix Ugly With Sleek

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jannik (@jaadiee) on Dec 12, 2018 at 8:48am PST

As Streetwear Gramps and Kanye West prove, this is the key to mastering ‘edgy’ streetwear style, without looking like you are about to mug someone. Think about it: this look would not work with straight-y 180 jeans, and it would be tasteless if the shirt was ripped too. In other words: balance is key.

Throw Your Belt In The Trash

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Luca Calvani (@lucalvani) on May 10, 2019 at 11:21am PDT

You might need it for super formal occasions, but as Luca Calvani shows, if you know your stuff you can get away with going for the more chic minimal look most of the time.

Use Small Accessories To Spice Up A Plain Look

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gianluca Vacchi (@gianlucavacchi) on Feb 22, 2019 at 11:12am PST

Whether it’s a watch, a necklace, or even a ring, if you do it right, it is always possible to level up your outfit without looking like a blinged up pirate.

Don’t Obsess Over Where Or How Your Clothes Sit On You

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mariano Di Vaio (@marianodivaio) on May 29, 2019 at 2:52am PDT

It reeks insecurity to be fiddling with your clothes in public. Once you step out the door wear your clothes with confidence and allow them to swing where the wind takes them.

Know When Enough Is Enough

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jeff Goldblum (@jeffgoldblum) on Nov 8, 2018 at 2:50pm PST

This move was risky (if his hat had been zebra patterned too, it would have looked horrific). But, using this technique, Jeff Goldblum pulled it off.

Go Against The Grain

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @menfashioner on May 18, 2019 at 11:19pm PDT

As long as you look like you’ve made a conscious decision (as opposed to having nothing else to wear) then going against the grain can score you major style points. While the jacket above would have been worn with a pair of skinny jeans by 99% of guys worldwide, going for the baggier (but still tailored) look is a bold and effective choice.

Colour Co-Ordinate With Care

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Michael B. Jordan (@michaelbjordan) on Jun 15, 2019 at 4:43pm PDT

If you have one bold block of colour (like orange) then allow it to shine — don’t add other pesky brightness to your look.

Further habits of stylish men include:

Using suncream (keep yourself young).
Getting regular haircuts and beard trims.
Changing your razor cartridge regularly.
Changing your toothbrush regularly.
Visiting a dermatologist.
Following quality inspiration on Instagram.
Avoiding the hot air setting of the hairdryer.
Not using dodgy cologne.
Shampooing less and conditioning more.

Read Next

End Of Financial Year Expenses: What Australians can and can’t claim

Expenses you can claim when working from home

Expenses you can’t claim when working from home

Calculating running expenses

Shortcut method

Records you must keep

Bonus ways to maximize your return

Renew your Playboy subscription

Develop a Messiah complex

Quit while you’re ahead

Invest in your business

Sacrifice your salary

A word of warning

Extra advice

Read Next

How much do I need to get started?

The magical figure

Where should I invest?

Going on a dry run

I’m ready to invest *now* — how do I do it?

Online trading

Research, research, research

Generally speaking, buy what you know

Don’t take our word for it, here’s the expert

Tax implications

The final word

Read Next

Read Next

In This Story…

Don’t Let Anyone Tell You What To Wear

Learn How To Mix Ugly With Sleek

Throw Your Belt In The Trash

Use Small Accessories To Spice Up A Plain Look

Don’t Obsess Over Where Or How Your Clothes Sit On You

Know When Enough Is Enough

Go Against The Grain

Colour Co-Ordinate With Care

Read Next

Influencer program

Email to a Friend

I’m ready to invest now — how do I do it?