The ATO has finally released a long-awaited draft Determination which clarifies the deductibility of tax (financial) advice. While the draft states that generally, an individual may be entitled to a deduction for fees paid to a financial adviser if they satisfy the requirements in ss 8-1 or 25-5 of the ITAA 1997, this is much harder to apply in practice. This is because most financial advice fees are one single fee comprising of many different services and would require more work to apportion the fee into deductible and non-deductible components.
