It’s Tax Planning time. We love this time of year because we’re catching up with our clients, reconnecting and exploring plans together. Everyone has different goals when it comes to tax planning. If you’re planning to refinance in the next year or so, or even sell your business, it’s likely we’ll put our focus into showing healthy profits and balance sheet. If you want to minimise tax then we’ll focus…
Company Directors need to know about the new Director Identification Number (“Director ID”). Put simply, Company Directors will need to apply for their Director ID themselves using their myGovID. This is an extra layer of information that the Australian Business Registry Service will use to catch fraud, trace relationships, and identify unlawful director activity. The Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS) is a new service which will bring together the Australian…
Superannuation Stapling – new rules for employers ‘Superannuation stapling’ or ‘stapled super’ is a new measure that was introduced as part of a package of reforms to the superannuation system announced in the 2020/21 Federal Budget. Under this measure, an existing superannuation account is linked, or ‘stapled’, to an individual employee so that it follows them as they change jobs. This avoids the creation of a new superannuation account each…
COVID-19 Business Support Grants – Queensland **Updated with information released 17 August 2021. As this seems subject to change you should rely on information published directly by the government** What’s on offer $10,000 (excluding GST) grants will be available to eligible small and medium businesses (and up to $30,000 depending on the size of your business). The grant may be used for business expenses. Complete grant applications will be processed in order of receipt and Grant funds will be paid within two weeks of approval. Businesses who get the grant must agree to complete an acquittal survey within 3 – 6 months after approval of their application and funding being transferred to their nominated bank account. Failure to do so may impact on eligibility for future grant programs. Applications…
Are you planning your staff Christmas Party? Understand the tax implications so that you don’t pay tax unnecessarily. The big one is Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT). This is a tax to the employer when providing benefits to employees in addition to their salary or wage. The Fringe Benefits Tax rate is a whopping 47% of the the fringe benefits taxable value of the benefit provided. The ability to claim GST on expenditure or an income tax deduction also varies depending on how benefits are provided. That is, Christmas parties ON your work premises have different tax consequences than Christmas parties held AWAY from your work premises. Christmas Gifts are a different case again. To keep things simple, take a look at the tables below. If you venture into FBT territory, we can…
31 March is the last day of the FBT year. If you claim your vehicle as a business expense then there’s some changes which require you to take action before then. What’s the big deal? The ATO are cracking down on exempt car and residual benefits. This catches any ute, dual cab ute or van provided to employees (including business owners) for use in a business. They have now issued clear rules that taxpayers should follow to ensure they will not be targeted for audit, especially if claiming 100% business use. This new Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2018/3 will apply to this FBT year & onwards. Essentially you do not have to keep a log book to support the business use of your vehicle if you meet ALL these requirements: (a) the…
New Year’s resolutions are easy to make; the hard part is sticking with them. Business New Year’s resolutions are no different. Here are our tips to freshen up your business and renew your enthusiasm for getting your business into shape. Review your budget – have you stuck to it so far? Of course you did your business budget back when the financial year started in July, but have you looked at it since? Usually a budget will have considered the changes you wish to make, the KPI’s you wanted to achieve, and targets which aid you in achieving the goal you’ve set. Now is the time to look at how you’re actually travelling, and make any adjustments to what you are doing so that you can build on wins or…
For service businesses it’s easy to answer with a resounding YES! But what about businesses that sell products? Proper time management implies people spend time on profitable productive tasks. More time spent on profitable productive tasks means you’ll get close to your goal. For service based businesses this means that the people with the expertise spend most of their time doing work that results in revenue and profit. The same applies to businesses which mostly sell products. How to determine where you’re at List all the “service” tasks that have to be done in the business that are not necessarily customer facing Check you’ve included as many as you can. Think about administrative tasks like bookkeeping or payroll, through to the supply chain & logistics of sourcing and delivering your product.…
Do you really know whether you’re getting the best return from your business? You may be satisfied by the way your business operates as well as the money you earn from it. But do you really know whether or not you are getting the best return from the investment you’re making? Don’t just consider the money you’ve invested in the business when answering this question. Or the money you are receiving from it. Consider the time you and your family spend attending to business related tasks. As well as all the other “little” things that eat into your lifestyle. Why is this important? The investment you’ve made in your business (money, sweat and possibly tears) is an important part of your overall wealth strategy. It is up there with owning…
Are your investment decisions working for you? The key to enlightenment is to look at your results. But first let’s get back to basics. When you are a business owner you can make investment decisions whether you’re aware of making that decision or not. Lifestyle The amount of time you use in your day to attend to tasks in your business, as well as the amount of “bleed” you accept all impact your lifestyle, your contentment and your well being. By “bleed” we mean the little things that you do in your own time that somehow need to be done but not intended to do which impact your me time (such as returning that phone call just as the first guests arrive to your BBQ). Capital In very simple terms this is…
If your business is your “retirement fund” or your key to a more passive income (that is, you don’t need to be there 100% of the time to make it work), then it’s essential you put some thought into how the business operates now and where it should head in the future. If you want to take your business to the next level then proactively thinking about your plan will give you the key to taking advantage of opportunities that come your way. We all know that plans don’t always work out the way you imagined they would; however the process of thinking through potential scenarios means that you are much more prepared to make the best decision for you in the moment that opportunities arise. When you develop those scenarios and plans there are a few…
