Tax Configuration

The file config/tax.yaml configures everything needed for Australian Tax Office (ATO) reporting. Copy from the example:

cp config/tax.yaml.example config/tax.yaml

Financial year

Set the current financial year. FY 2025 means the year ending 30 June 2025 (1 Jul 2024 — 30 Jun 2025):

financial_year: 2025

Taxpayer

Basic taxpayer info used in the ATO return view:

taxpayer:
  name: "Your Name"
  spouse:
    name: "Partner Name"
    taxable_income: 0

Businesses

Define businesses for the ATO Business & Professional Items schedule. Each business has an ABN and split rules:

businesses:
  - name: "My Business"
    abn: "00000000000"
    activity: "Web development and design"
    split_rules:
      - category: Utilities
        tag: internet
        business_pct: 50
      - category: Utilities
        tag: mobile
        business_pct: 20

How split rules work

There are two ways transactions get allocated to a business:

1. Implicit 100% — any category starting with Business: is automatically allocated at 100% to the first matching business. No split rule needed.

2. Partial allocation via split rules — personal categories that are partially business-use. Each rule matches on both category and tag:

split_rules:
  - category: Utilities     # matches the transaction's category
    tag: internet            # AND matches a tag on the transaction
    business_pct: 50         # allocate 50% as business expense

See the business splits guide for the full explanation.

Rental properties

Define rental properties for the ATO rental schedule (Item 21):

rental_properties:
  - name: "MY PROPERTY"
    address: "123 Main St, Suburb NSW 2000"
    ownership_pct: 50
    rental_weeks: { 2025: 20 }
    income_category: "Airbnb Income"
    expense_mapping:
      - ato_label: "Body corporate fees"
        category: "Strata"
      - ato_label: "Interest on loans"
        category: "Mortgage"
      - ato_label: "Water charges"
        tag: "water"
      - ato_label: "Repairs and maintenance"
        category: "Rental: Maintenance"

Rental property fields

Field	Description
name	Property identifier
address	Street address (for ATO return)
ownership_pct	Your ownership share (e.g. 50 for joint ownership)
rental_weeks	Map of FY to weeks rented (e.g. { 2025: 20 })
income_category	Category name for rental income transactions
expense_mapping	Maps expense categories/tags to ATO labels

Expense mapping

Each mapping entry links a transaction category or tag to an ATO rental schedule label. The system automatically sums matching transactions and applies the ownership percentage:

• Use category to match by spending category
• Use tag to match by transaction tag (useful when one category like “Utilities” has sub-types)

Work-from-home deductions

Configure WFH using the ATO fixed-rate method ($0.67/hour):

work_deductions:
  wfh:
    rate_per_hour: 0.67
    entries:
      2025: { weeks: 48, allocation_pct: 100 }

The calculation is: weeks x (allocation_pct / 100) x 38 hours/week x rate_per_hour

For example, 48 weeks at 100% = 48 x 1.0 x 38 x $0.67 = $1,220.64

Depreciation schedules

Add depreciating assets for business or rental:

depreciation_schedules:
  - name: "Business equipment"
    business: "My Business"
    type: "business"
    items:
      - description: "Laptop"
        amount: 500
        fy: 2025
      - description: "Camera"
        amount: 300
        fy: 2025

  - name: "Rental fixtures"
    property: "MY PROPERTY"
    type: "rental"
    items:
      - description: "Air conditioner"
        amount: 200
        fy: 2025

The business or property field links the schedule to a business or rental property. The type field is either "business" or "rental".

Manual entries

For amounts that do not appear in bank transactions (e.g. tax withheld from payment summaries):

manual_entries:
  2025:
    - label: "Tax withheld"
      amount: 50000
      section: "income"
      notes: "From payment summary"

Running the tax summary

From the CLI:

ledger tax --fy 2025

Or view the full ATO return structure in the dashboard under the Tax tab, which calls GET /api/ato/return?fy=2025.