income estimate

[skybie]

hi ladies, im sure this questions probably already been asked about a million times but ws just wondering...
when we make DF's yearly income estimate, are we estimating the taxable income figure?
gosh did that even make sense??
ok so for this year i estimated 65k and on his tax return documents it lists his taxable income as 26k.
does that mean ive seriously over estimated or is there another figure hiding?
FYI he did earn more than that, we just had alot of deductions this year!

[misskate]

hi there
i am an ex centrelink employee so i hope this helps

you can ring clink family line between 8:30am and 8pm.



But to answer your question.... no do not use your taxable income... use you gross income before tax... and always try to overestimate. at the end of financial year, clink fixes everything up to work out how much they owe you/you owe them.

[Early Kids]

I was going to say what Kate did

I over estimate by at least 10k every year and get back heaps at the end of year its awesome

[briggsy's girl]

hate to be the one to buck the trend, but as a current FAO employee i will! the FTB estimate is on taxable income, not gross income. it's on the amount the ATO tax you on, not what you get - so after all deductions.

having said that though, in the OP's situation, if her partner normally has a taxable income around 65k - that would be the estimate you'd use for the coming year, not the lower one from last year due to his deductions as they were out of the ordinary.

ALWAYS overestimate by at least 5% (bureau of statistics says the average income goes up 5% each year - i tend to suggest 10% or more for safety).

Sky - if you estimated 65k for your partner last year and he had mammoth deductions (yay for you guys!!), FAO will reconcile your file and you'll get a top up for any extra money you should have gotten during the financial year. don't underestimate this year based on that last assessment though - i would probably stick with the 65k if the deductions were unusual - it's better to get a healthy little top up than to get a nasty bill if you underestimate

hth's

BG

[skybie]

thanks for all that info BG, we do estimate around 10% extra each year and then total DF's invoices half way through the year then times it by 2 and update the estimate if we need to. we've just had a big year spending wise on things for his business, especially with the governments tax insentive that brought our taxable income down drastically.
will be looking forward to having some play money!! i need new clothes, all mine are slowly stretching with my ever growing belly! lol