IT managers dodge ATO expenses crackdown

Australia's IT managers appear to be off the hook from specific scrutiny of work-related expense claims during this year's tax time.

The Australian Taxation Office last year initiated a crackdown on expense claims lodged by IT managers at tax time, alleging the claims were — on average — $550 above that of a "typical employee".

This year, however, the IT industry doesn't rate a mention in the list of industries subject to an expenses crackdown by the ATO — and it seems the Tax Office hasn't done any work to assess whether last year's focus on IT managers yielded any specific reduction in average claims in the industry.

"We have not yet undertaken further analysis of the claims for work related expenses in the IT industry," a spokesman for the Tax Office told iTnews.

This year, it's sales and marketing managers, as well as building and construction employees that are on the ATO's compliance radar.

"Each year the ATO focuses on work related expenses where there is a pattern of large and/or rising claims, returns do not fit the pattern for a particular occupation, and claims in returns lodged by tax agents are outside the norm for their clients," the ATO's spokesman said.