Party plan income & reporting to Centrelink

[satya]

If you earn money from party plan do you have to report it to Centrelink as income?

I'm not asking for myself as I don't do party plan but I know someone who does. She told her local Centrelink office many times that she does party plan & they are not interested in the income as it's considered a hobby.

She does a couple of different parties & has them regularly & makes good money from it. Surely this would be considered the same as someone who does casual work?

I'm just concerned if she's been told incorrect information that one day it will catch up with her & she'll be paying back a lot of money to Centrelink.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

Party plan income is considered a hobby until it earns over $6k in commission. Even then, she'll just hafta fill in a form every fortnight detailing what comission she earned minus any business expenses - it would take a while to affect her payments I would think.

Briggsy's Girl would probably be a good person to PM

[briggsy's girl]

will depend on what payments she is receiving - if it's an income support payment she would have to report fortnightly (or via profit and loss statements every few months), if it's just ftb, the only income is what ATO consider income (which party plan isn't unless she's earnign a certain amount)

[satya]

I'm not sure what she's on - both her kids are now over 18 and work full time & she's single. She has two part time casual jobs (one which pays heaps as it's shift work) plus two party plans that she does regularly plus getting something from Centrelink.

She says they never make her fill out any forms & show absolutely no interest in the party plan money. From what she's said about commission I'd say she would easily earn over $6000 a year from party plan.

[briggsy's girl]

if both kids are over 18 and both her and partner are working, i'd say they'd be getting minimum ftb for her kids as ft students - in which case the only thing that matters is what ATO consider income

if she is doing two diff party plans, she may get higher combined commission, but it may not be included for tax purposes as it's two diff ones kwim? i'm not sure - my accountant didn't use 6k as the number for commission, he talked about turnover and it was a much higher number (so incoming v outgoing - can't remember what it was now though)