Key Dates for Business July 2020 01 July – First day of the 2020/2021 financial year 21 July – Monthly Activity Statements (June 2020) due for lodgement and payment 28 July – Quarterly Activity Statements (April-June) due for lodgement and payment (if lodging by paper) 28 July – Superannuation Guarantee Contributions (April-June) due for payment to superannuation funds or Clearing… Read more »

Today, the Prime Minister announced the extension and watering down of the wage subsidy, JobKeeper  Points to note: Existing JobKeeper continues up until 27 September 2020 From the next day, a new, modified JobKeeper scheme applies until 28 March 2021 Under the new scheme, employers must reassess their eligibility with reference to actual turnover in the June and September quarters… Read more »

For those businesses that trade out of a Discretionary (Family) Trust it is an annual mandatory requirement of the ATO that all Discretionary Trusts prepare a Trustee Resolution Minute before 30 June each year. The Minute outlines who is going to be allocated the income of the trust. Without this Minute, the ATO will allocate all income… Read more »

On 3 June 2020, the federal government announced the Homebuilder Grant to encourage individuals to build a new home or substantially renovate their existing home. The grant is aimed at encouraging demand in the residential construction sector with industry bodies painting an otherwise grim picture of the second half of this year. Homebuilder is a time-limited… Read more »

Businesses will be able to access the boosted $150,000 instant asset write-off scheme for a further six months to the end of the year. By way of background, as part of its emergency COVID-19 fiscal package, the government quin­tupled (from $30,000) the value of assets businesses were able to instantly write -off for the ­period of… Read more »

To qualify, an employer must demonstrate that its GST turnover has fallen by the following percentage compared to the same comparison period in 2019: 30% fall in turnover (for an aggregated turnover of $1 billion or less) 50% fall in turnover (for an aggregated turnover of more than $1 billion), or 15% fall in turnover (for ACNC-registered charities… Read more »

Late on Friday April 10, explanatory materials were released in relation to the JobKeeper payment that has now been passed into law. The explanatory material clarifies one key aspect of the new legislation:Establishing a downturn By way of background, to qualify for the JobKeeper wage subsidy, one of the eligibility criteria is that:for businesses that have… Read more »

We’ve received many questions from subscribers around how a “downturn of turnover” will be measured for the purposes of eligibility for the coronavirus-related Job Keeper Payment. Last night there was fresh guidance from Treasury. By way of background, one of the eligibility criteria for Job Keeper is that: • for businesses that have an annual turnover of… Read more »

As a consequence of COVID-19, many employees are now working from home.  To make it easier for people to claim deductions when working from home, the ATO yesterday announced a new shortcut method which will allow taxpayers to claim a rate of 80 cents per hour for all their running expenses, rather than needing to calculate… Read more »