Leslie Perry is a tax lawyer who regularly travelled overseas for work. After having a baby in late 2015 she took unpaid leave from work to travel around the world. Traveling with an infant required much preparation and a reasonable amount of equipment. Leslie enjoyed researching and testing travel gear, and as a consequence she developed a reasonable knowledge about traveling with young kids.

In March 2016 Leslie had an idea to start a travel blog to share her experiences with other parents and keep memories of her trips. She registered her blog’s domain ‘www.babywanderlust.com’ with a paid host server at a cost of $20 per year and frequently posted tips about airlines, kid-friendly hotels and product reviews of the travel gear she used. She also regularly shared her blog photos and the links to her posts on her Instagram account and Facebook page, which generated thousands of ‘likes’ and substantially increased the number of visitors to her website. In July 2016 a baby pram manufacturer invited Leslie to test and write a review on their latest ultra-lightweight travel pram. She would not receive any money for the review however she could keep the pram, which was retailed for $600. In January 2017 a resort in Fiji offered her 1-week free accommodation (valued at $2,000) in exchange for a blog post about her stay.

Offers of that kind became frequent, and in the current income year Leslie estimates having received a total of $22,000 in benefits, $18,000 in advertising fees, and her travel expenses amounted to $14,000.

Required: 

Advise Leslie Perry on the tax consequences of the above for the income year ending 30 June 2018, applying legislation, case law, and tax rulings.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Issue In this case the issue is to determine the income tax implications of various benefits received by Leslie Perry for writing her experience in a travel blog Rules Australian Tax office has explai... View the full answer