Well this is how I see it (could be completely illegal, i dont know)
I do have an ABN from a previous sub contracting thing I did. Now I use it as a 'Musical Producer' front
Any small business is expected to run at a loss the first couple of years, I beleive the tax office allows a business running at a loss for 2-3 years? (dont quote me, as i have no clue)
We'll use a Fish N Chip shop as an example.
Starting a Fish N Chip business would be quite costly, purchasing all the cooking equipment, not to mention the produce. Then only earning sfa during the first years... So you're expected to lose alot of money which the ATO will be more than happy to refund some of.
Its sorta the same with DJ'ing, you bought your decks/mixer/vinyls/studio equipment all for your business of DJ'ing. I'm pretty sure you can claim all that on tax which I'm sure alot of us has spent thousands on.
Just state how much you earned, say $100.00 per gig. You'll get quite a hefty tax return using this method as I scored 4k last year without any trouble.
So yeah, just make sure you got receipts (or fabricate them like me) of any purchases semi-relating to DJ'ing/Producing
With the ABN, i'm not too sure about what you need to do. I suggest signing up for an ABN (its as easy as signing up for a hotmail account). Choose the Tax paying period as Yearly so you wont be bothered by the pesky ATO. Just make sure you hand in your Income statement at the designated yearly interval.
How I got mine setup is, every time tax time rolls around, I tally up my years expenditure and income from the DJ/Producing business. I could've easily spent 20k on vinyls/equipment in a financial year and could've easily only earnt 1k from gigs. I'm pretty sure this is legal
I remember alot of other DJ's on TA do this on a yearly basis, maybe some other people can enlighten us on how it really works
I'll let you guys know if I get audited... I'm certain all of you would love an extra 4k bonus for that hard to appease vinyl addiction 
tip: if you have never done this, accumalate all your purchases from when you first started and pretend you bought it all in the same year. (which is what i did last year). Try not to do this if you're a bum and only claim newstart as they'll be wondering where the fuk you ripped the dosh from. People with a ft job with min wage are alot less likely to get audited. But even if you do get audited, photoshop and myob will be your new best friend.
[/rez's illegal tax tip #1]
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shokk my madness says what i must do
Last edited by rez on Jul-04-2006 at 01:32
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