Writer's Haven > Quill and Feather Pub [Public]
[Guide] Australian Tax for authors.
TimothyEllis:
A few things about author tax for Australians.
1. Amazon deduct tax out of your royalty amount, at the time of payment. 30% if you haven't submitted your Australian tax details, 5% if you have. The 5% is deducted at payment time and is gone.
2. All you can do is claim tax already paid at tax time, using the yearly US$ rate for conversion, published on the ATO website. If your actual tax bill is less than that, you lose the excess. They dont do refunds of US tax. But if you have the income, the US tax decreases your Australian tax.
3. Any income from being an Author is taxed in Australia differently. If you apply to be classified as 24Z Special Professional Income, a completely different method of calculating tax is used, which should lower how much tax you pay, but it's calculated over a 5 year period. Filling the tax out on the online site is a real b*tch because you have to put 2 different sets of numbers in 2 places, but it can be done online. But first you have to ring the ATO and find out how to write to them to apply for it. It only applies on your author income, but it can keep you from bracket creeping. I did this and received a very healthy refund on the previous 2 years tax.
If you are earning well on book sales, you should be in 24Z. Its a process. It took 2 attempts a sending them the letter, and several hours on the phone to the ATO (they rang me), but it was worth it.
You do not need to be registered for GST or have an ABN. GST applies only if you sell from your own website, or from events. And it cuts in somewhere around the $80k mark, so very few authors will need to worry about GST registration.
Simon Haynes:
I had to explain the 24Z to my previous accountant because they'd never heard of it. My current accountant is about to learn of it, if he doesn't already know!
One thing about GST - I sell apps on the apple store, and for Australian sales they insist you are registered for GST before they'll pay up. In response, I blocked my apps from Australian users. (Even an ABN isn't enough. It looks like they forward the GST they've collected, and expect you to remit it to the ATO.)
This is the only reason I don't publish my books on iTunes directly. There is no way in hell I'm doing quarterly BAS statements for maybe a hundred dollars or so of royalty, and I'm pretty sure the ATO will laugh down the phone at me if I try and register for GST with that kind of annual turnover.
There has to be a tipping point, and to me it's easier to just publish through Smashwords and let them deal with it.
Having said that, I'm about to publish my stuff direct through B&N instead of relying on Smashwords.
(All of the above is supposition and personal experience. I'm not an accountant or a GST expert, so I strongly advise people to make their own enquiries. I would love to know if I'm wrong, particularly where iTunes is concerned.)
Lee Carlon:
After a bit of back and forth with Apple about the GST issue, I managed to get this reply from somebody in their finance team:
--- Quote ---The Australia GST requirement would not have any impact on your ability to publish directly with Apple in other countries. If you expect your annual earnings in Australia to be less than $7,500 AUD (including GST), we do have an alternative process if you choose to not provide GST registration. Basically, we review accounts without Australia GST registration on an annual basis. If the earnings are less than $7,500, we reverse the GST and issue payment. The only downside is that you will be paid for your Australia earnings once per year instead of monthly. Hope this information helps!
--- End quote ---
Simon Haynes:
--- Quote from: Lee Carlon on September 23, 2018, 04:05:46 PM ---After a bit of back and forth with Apple about the GST issue, I managed to get this reply from somebody in their finance team:
--- Quote ---The Australia GST requirement would not have any impact on your ability to publish directly with Apple in other countries. If you expect your annual earnings in Australia to be less than $7,500 AUD (including GST), we do have an alternative process if you choose to not provide GST registration. Basically, we review accounts without Australia GST registration on an annual basis. If the earnings are less than $7,500, we reverse the GST and issue payment. The only downside is that you will be paid for your Australia earnings once per year instead of monthly. Hope this information helps!
--- End quote ---
--- End quote ---
That is fantastic news! If they let you know how to apply for this, can you post here?
I have a lot of yWriter IOS customers who will be over the moon, and I'd love to publish my ebooks direct to apple books as well.
Cheers
Simon
Lee Carlon:
--- Quote from: Simon Haynes on September 23, 2018, 04:12:52 PM ---
--- Quote from: Lee Carlon on September 23, 2018, 04:05:46 PM ---After a bit of back and forth with Apple about the GST issue, I managed to get this reply from somebody in their finance team:
--- Quote ---The Australia GST requirement would not have any impact on your ability to publish directly with Apple in other countries. If you expect your annual earnings in Australia to be less than $7,500 AUD (including GST), we do have an alternative process if you choose to not provide GST registration. Basically, we review accounts without Australia GST registration on an annual basis. If the earnings are less than $7,500, we reverse the GST and issue payment. The only downside is that you will be paid for your Australia earnings once per year instead of monthly. Hope this information helps!
--- End quote ---
--- End quote ---
That is fantastic news! If they let you know how to apply for this, can you post here?
I have a lot of yWriter IOS customers who will be over the moon, and I'd love to publish my ebooks direct to apple books as well.
Cheers
Simon
--- End quote ---
This was my follow up question in the email thread:
--- Quote ---Does that annual review process for Australian publishers without GST registration kick in automatically or does it need to be activated manually?
--- End quote ---
and this is the answer I got (note the conversation took place in September 2017, and I didn't publish my books with them until this month so I haven't seen the process in action):
--- Quote ---It is a manual process we perform once a year (last done in May 2017). You will receive an email notification when the process is completed next year.
--- End quote ---
And of course, I'm not an accountant and I do recommend contacting apple directly to verify this, even if just so you have it on record and can refer back to it if you need to later :)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version