Often not as much as the advertising implies. Every June, big advertisers reframe their pitches around tax time, suggesting that buying their product or service before 30 June will hand you a meaningful saving on your tax return. Sometimes the saving is real but smaller than implied. Sometimes it applies only to a narrow group of Australians. Sometimes it doesn’t exist at all.

The ATO has also flagged misleading tax advice, including pitches from social media finfluencers and AI tools, as a focus area for tax time 2026. The pattern isn’t going away.

Here are the five common EOFY pitches worth a second look before you reach for your wallet.

At a glance

• The office equipment pitch. Most employees can’t deduct the full cost of a big-ticket item up front.
• The private health insurance pitch. The tax it claims to avoid doesn’t apply to most Australians.
• The buy-a-car-before-30-June pitch. PAYG employees can’t claim the purchase price at all.
• The prepay-loan-interest pitch. Real strategy, but it shifts a deduction, it doesn’t create one.
• The finfluencer and AI tax tips pitch. You’re liable for the return. The influencer isn’t.

1. The office equipment pitch

Office suppliers and electronics retailers spend June suggesting you can deduct the full cost of a laptop, monitor or printer if you buy it before 30 June. For most employees, that isn’t how it works.

The rules for employees

• Items costing $300 or less and used mainly for work can be deducted in full that year.
• Anything over $300 must be depreciated over its ATO effective life.
• A standard laptop’s effective life is two years (ATO Determination LI 2025/20).
• First-year depreciation is apportioned by the days you held the asset.

Worked example: $1,200 laptop bought 30 June

Prime cost formula: cost × (days held ÷ 365) × (100% ÷ effective life).

$1,200 × (1 ÷ 365) × (50%) = $1.64.

Not $1,200. About $1.64 in Year 1. The deduction catches up over the following year, but only if you keep using the laptop for work.

For small businesses

• Aggregated annual turnover under $10 million: $20,000 instant asset write-off available through 30 June 2026.
• The threshold drops to $1,000 from 1 July 2026.
• Asset must cost less than $20,000, be used for business purposes, and be installed and ready for use by 30 June. Paying for it isn’t enough.

Bottom line: Buy the equipment because you need it, not because of the ad.

2. The private health insurance pitch

The pitch leans on a single line: take out hospital cover before 30 June and you’ll save on tax. The tax being avoided is the Medicare Levy Surcharge, which most working Australians don’t pay.

Medicare Levy Surcharge thresholds for 2025–26

• Below threshold. Singles under $101,000 or families under $202,000. No surcharge applies.
• Tier 1 (1.0%). Singles $101,000 to $118,000, or families $202,000 to $236,000.
• Tier 2 (1.25%). Singles $118,001 to $158,000, or families $236,001 to $316,000.
• Tier 3 (1.5%). Singles above $158,000, or families above $316,000.

The family threshold rises by $1,500 for each dependent child after the first.

What this means

If your income is below $101,000 single (or $202,000 family), the surcharge doesn’t apply to you. Taking out a hospital policy “to save on tax” saves you nothing because there was no tax to save.

Hospital cover may still be worth holding for other reasons, including waiting times and out-of-pocket costs. That’s a personal decision. It is rarely a tax decision.

Bottom line: Check your income before you check the policy. The tax saving only exists above $101,000 single or $202,000 family.

3. The buy-a-car-before-30-June pitch

Dealerships push this one hard. The reality is narrower than the ad suggests.

If you’re a PAYG employee

• The purchase price of a car is not deductible against your salary income.
• Work-related car expenses use the cents per kilometre method (88c per km, capped at 5,000 km per car) or the logbook method (business-use percentage of running costs and depreciation).
• Neither method gives you a deduction for the upfront purchase price.

If you’re a sole trader or small business

• $20,000 instant asset write-off applies only to assets under $20,000. Most passenger cars cost more and don’t qualify.
• Vehicles over $20,000 go into the small business depreciation pool. 15% in the first year, 30% each year after.
• Car Limit for 2025–26 is $69,674. Any amount paid above the Car Limit cannot be depreciated at all.
• Asset must be delivered and ready for business use by 30 June. Signing a contract isn’t enough.

Example: $120,000 passenger vehicle bought through a small business

Deductible depreciation base is capped at $69,674. The remaining $50,326 generates no tax deduction at all, ever.

Bottom line: For most viewers, the EOFY car saving is much smaller than the ad implies. For PAYG employees, it’s zero.

4. The prepay-loan-interest pitch

This one comes from banks and mortgage brokers. The mechanism is real. The pitch is often misleading.

How the rule works

• Section 82KZM of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 lets individuals who aren’t carrying on a business prepay up to 12 months of investment loan interest before 30 June and claim the full amount that year.
• What it actually does is bring a deduction forward by a year. The interest would have been deductible next year anyway.
• The benefit is timing, not magnitude.

It can make sense if

• Income this year will be unusually high and lower next year.
• Cashflow allows the lump-sum payment without strain.
• The loan is genuinely for income-producing investments.

It doesn’t make sense if

• Income is steady or rising. You’re moving a deduction to a year worth the same or less.
• Prepayment strains cashflow. The cost of strain often outweighs the timing benefit.
• The investment isn’t producing assessable income. The interest wasn’t deductible anyway.

Bottom line: Prepayment shifts a deduction, it doesn’t create one. Ask whether it fits your circumstances, or only the lender’s quarter.

5. The finfluencer and AI tax tips pitch

This is the most modern of the five. The ATO has put misleading content from social media and AI tools on its 2026 tax time watch list.

Common patterns

• TikTok and Instagram posts pitching deductions “everyone misses” that don’t apply to most viewers.
• LinkedIn posts framing aggressive positions as standard practice.
• AI chatbots producing confident answers based on outdated information or US tax rules.

The legal point that matters

• You are liable for what’s in your tax return.
• Not the influencer, not the chatbot, not the friend who passed on the tip.
• If the deduction is wrong, the ATO recovers it from you. Penalties and interest apply on top.

Who can legally charge to give tax advice or lodge your return

• Tax practitioners registered with the Tax Practitioners Board.
• The TPB register is publicly searchable.
• Anyone else doing it is operating outside that framework.

Bottom line: If a deduction sounds aggressive, novel or too easy, confirm it with a registered tax agent before claiming it.

Three questions to ask before any EOFY pitch

1. Does the rule actually apply to my situation?
2. Is the saving the full amount, or a fraction of it?
3. Am I bringing forward a deduction I would have claimed anyway?

If you can’t answer those three clearly, the saving probably isn’t what the advertisement suggested.

FabTax processes tax for individuals, property investors and small business owners across Australia. We do tax properly. That’s the whole promise.

Talk to our team about your tax return.