An influencer has revealed he owes $10,000 after filling out his tax return – as the Australian Taxation Office reveals why.
Jenny, who posts food, fashion and travel content from her adventures in Western Australia as Rye Foodie, shared her frustration over her potential 2022-23 tax bill in a viral TikTok clip.
‘Just when you thought you finally got it [a] This year’s tax return,’ reads the caption.
Jenny shared a screenshot of the ATO’s online page showing she owed $10,537.
He is one of thousands of Australians who have become increasingly frustrated with their tax returns and several have revealed they owe money to the ATO.
Their frustration comes as some Australians reveal a simple reason they might expect a bill from the ATO rather than money in their pocket.
Jenny, who posts food, fashion and travel content from her adventures in Western Australia as Rye Foodie, shared her frustration over her potential 2022-23 tax bill in a viral TikTok clip.
A 21-year-old healthcare worker, nicknamed Abbs on TikTok, was left with a $3249 bill after forgoing pay while she still had outstanding student loans.
Jenny’s clip has been viewed more than 238,000 times and has drawn mostly sympathetic responses.
One woman wrote in the comments that she owed $9,500.
‘Man, this is highway robbery right now,’ said one follower. ‘We work so hard for what? scrap?
Several others wrote that they were too ‘scared’ to file their returns and one woman even wrote that she planned to avoid filing her returns.
‘Oh no, I’m skipping mine’.
Workers have been warned to expect lower-than-expected returns this financial year, after the Low-Middle Income Tax Offset (LMITO) was scrapped by Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
The measure – which was always meant to be temporary – has provided tax cuts of up to $1500 to 10 million Australians over the past four years.
The struggling Aussies are now finding out the hard way how much they relied on offsets.
Especially affected are those who owe money for an unexpected student loan debt.
A Melbourne man has taken to social media to bemoan his $5000 tax bill, which he admits was partly due to him not notifying his employer of a student loan repayment.
She captioned her TikTok, ‘I really wish this was a joke, I hate HECS.’
More than 3 million ex-students will pay an average of $1,700 more on their HECS-HELP loan debt after student loan debt rose by 7.1 per cent on 1 June.
Indexation increases the amount of student loans in line with the Consumer Price Index, which increased by 7 percent in the 12 months to March 2023.
For those with outstanding student loans, salary packaging can add to debt at tax time and explains why some Australians may end up owing money to the ATO instead of getting a refund at tax time.
Salary packaging is an arrangement between an employee and their employer where employees give up some pre-tax income in exchange for benefits of similar value, such as a higher salary, a laptop and even children’s school fees.
Doing so means workers will pay less income tax on each paycheck. Because this means an increase in your take-home pay, it can negatively affect the outcome of your tax return.
A 21-year-old healthcare worker, nicknamed Abs on TikTok, was slogged with a $3,249 bill after forgoing pay while she still had a non-performing student loan.
‘I just did my tax return. If you work in healthcare and have HECS debt, I repeat, don’t [use salary packaging] Until you pay off your HECS debt. I was shocked,’ she said.
‘I actually want to cry. That’s what I wanted back and now I’m paying it forward. I paid $18,000 in taxes and I owe another $3000 in taxes,’ she said.
Back on Jeny’s TikTok, one person speculated that her bill was so high because she didn’t expect to pay taxes on her income as an influencer.
‘[They] Sucked up by the hustle culture and didn’t realize their “side hustle” was still taxable income.’