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Individuals deriving taxable income over $180,000 will see a decrease in the effective highest marginal tax rate from 49 per cent in the 2016-17 year to 47 per cent in 2017-18, given the removal of the two per cent temporary budget repair levy.

Tax offsets directly limit tax payable and can amount to a sizeable end number. Your income, family circumstances and conditions for particular offsets, are generally factors that influence your eligibility.

The government announced that Australia's foreign resident capital gains tax regime will be extended to deny foreign and temporary tax residents access to the main residence exemption, effective from 9 May 2017. Any properties held prior to this date will be exempt until 30 June 2019.

Owners of rental properties that are either rented or are readily available for rent can claim immediate deductions for a numerous amount of expenses, such as:

There are only two choices for how you can claim work-related motor vehicle travel.

Assets costing below $300 that are used to generate income can be immediately deducted. These assets may include tools for tradespeople, calculators, briefcases, computer equipment and technical books purchased by an employee, or minor items of plant purchased by a landlord.

If a study is directly related to either prolonging or improving current occupational skills or is likely to increase the income received from your current employment then the expenses involved can be claimed as self-education expenses. If any new qualifications obtained in a different field through study, the expenses incurred are not tax deductible.

If part of your home has been set aside solely or primarily for the purpose of work, a home office deduction may be allowable. Heating, cooling, lighting and even office equipment depreciation all come under typical home office expenses.

One way to save considerable tax is to claim all work-related deduction entitlements. Employment-related telephone, mobile phone, internet usage, computer repairs, union fees and professional subscriptions are all examples of typical work-related expenses.

Since the weekend all ATO systems have been offline as the ATO suffers a "World First" system failure for a government tax authority.  Apparently the hardware supplied and supported by Hewlett Packard has crashed as well as their backup systems.