FBT Issues on ATO Radar With the date for lodging and paying FBT approaching (21 May), on Wednesday 1st May, the ATO reminded employers that the following mistakes attract the ATO’s attention: *         failing to report car fringe benefits, incorrectly applying exemptions for vehicles or incorrectly claiming reductions for these benefits   *   mismatches between… Read more »

New legislation could see businesses lose tax deductions for payments to employees and contractors. This article details this new law, and provides a checklist of how to be compliant… BASICS In March, legislation was passed which will deny an income tax deduction for certain payments if the associated withholding obligations are not complied with by… Read more »

Many lodgement and payment deadlines are looming for business including those relating to Activity Statments, Superannuation, and more…. MAY 2019 12 May – 3rd Quarter 2018/2019 Activity Staterments – due for lodgement and payment if lodging electronically 21 May – April 2018 monthly Activity Statements – due for lodgement and payment 21 May – FBT… Read more »

The Government’s proposed Superannuation Guarantee (SG) Amnesty will not proceed. To recap, the SG amnesty was to be available for the 12-month period from 24 May 2018 to 23 May 2019. To get the benefits of the Amnesty (set out below) employers must have during this 12-month period voluntarily disclosed any SG underpayments that existed… Read more »

In the Budget on Tuesday, the Government announced that it would increase the instant asset write-off threshold to $30,000 and extend it to medium sized businesses (those with an aggregated annual turnover of less than $50 million). This, and the earlier change announced in January (to extend the write-off threshold to $25,000) passed both Houses… Read more »

Following is a brief summary of some of the headline Budget measures. BUSINESS *         Instant Asset Write-Off Boosted and Expanded – Two key changes have been made: o    The write-off has been extended to medium-sized businesses (those with an aggregated annual turnover of less than $50 million. o    The threshold has been increased to $30,000.… Read more »

The ATO Commissioner, Mr Chris Jordan, earlier this year stated that following ATO efforts, for the first time in almost 25 years, the average work-related claim decreased over the past 2 years. The Commissioner said the ATO’s next focus is rental income and deductions. To this end, as part of the ATO’s broader random enquiry… Read more »

Last week (05/03/19), the Reserve Bank of Australia decided not to change the official cash rate of 1.5%. Two days later the December quarter economic growth figures showed that the economy had slowed considerably – growing by just 0.2% from October to December, and 2.3% over the previous 12 months. This is considerably less than… Read more »

The first sitting of Parliament for 2019 wrapped up last week. While legislation to extend the Single Touch Payroll reporting regime to all employers passed into law (just awaiting Royal Assent), there are a couple of other measures that remain unlegislated which could impact your business. With the full Parliament only expected to sit for… Read more »