Superannuation Stapling

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 time a person changes their employment.

Broadly, the new rules require employers to use the ‘stapled super fund’ details (instead of the employer’s default fund) for new employees who do not choose a fund. These changes only apply to new employees who commence work on or after 1 November 2021 (i.e., existing employees are not affected by the new rules).

Employers must generally provide new employees with a superannuation Standard Choice Form within 28 days of commencing work.

From 1 November 2021, if a new employee does not choose a fund, then the employer will need to check if the employee has an existing stapled fund by logging into ATO online services and accessing the ‘stapled super fund request service’.

The ATO has advised that once all the required information is provided and the request is made, the result of the stapled super fund request should be available on-screen within minutes.

Where the employee has a stapled fund, the employer will be required to contribute to the employee’s stapled fund. If an employer makes contributions into their default fund for a new employee rather than checking with the ATO to see if the employee has a stapled super fund, then they may be subject to the choice shortfall penalty.

Importantly, there is no need to request stapled super fund details from the ATO for:

existing employees (i.e., those who commenced work before 1 November 2021); or
new employees (who commence work on or after 1 November 2021) and have chosen a superannuation fund.

Employees will also be notified by the ATO of the stapled super fund request made in relation to them and will be advised of the details provided by the ATO to the employer. The ATO will be monitoring the ‘stapled super fund request service’ to ensure that employers are using it appropriately and making genuine requests for stapled super fund details. Employers who use the service incorrectly (e.g., to request information for employees who started work before 1 November 2021) may have their access to the service removed.

More information about an employer’s obligations with regards to stapled super funds can be found here on the ATO’s website.

Thank you to National Tax & Accountants’ Association Ltd for providing us with this information to share. Find them at www.ntaa.com.au

Posted by Sigrid Arundel | Posted in Business Planning, Highlight | Tags: planning, superannuation, tax |

Aug 2021

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 close 16 November 2021.

Who’s eligible?

In simple terms your business must:

employ staff (does not include any business owners)
have an Australian Business Number (ABN)since 30 June 2021
be registered for GST
have Queensland headquartersand have been trading in Queensland on 31 July 2021
not be insolvent, or have owners or directors that are insolvent or an undischarged bankrupt
have an annual payroll of not more than $10 million
have an annual turnover of over $75,000during any of the 2018–19, 2019–20 or 2020–21 financial years
demonstrate the business or not for profit organisation was directly or indirectly impacted by a lockdown event
demonstrate or declare a reduction in turnover of 30% or moreduring a nominated 7-day period

The devil is in the detail so Business Qld have a detailed list of eligibility criteria and an “Eligibility Tracker” tool. For all the details visit: https://www.business.qld.gov.au/starting-business/advice-support/grants/covid19-support-grants

Who’s not eligible

Businesses and not for profit organisations located outside of Queensland.
Businesses and not for profit organisations whose only source of income is made up of rents, dividends and/or interest
A person applying for an eligible business or not for profit organisation that has already received a grant under this program (ie. only one grant will be approved for an eligible business).
Businesses and not for profit organisations eligible to receive income support through the Australian Government’s COVID-19 Disaster Payment will not be eligible. For further information on the COVID-19 Disaster Payment at – https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/covid-19-disasterpayment

How to check your drop in turnover

Xero has again come to the rescue.

If you click on Accounting then Reports you’ll see “Covid-19 Business Support” in the Tax Section of the Reports Screen. Xero has these instructions here: https://central.xero.com/s/article/COVID-19-Business-Support#Usetheturnovercalculator

You can use this report to determine your turnover drop.

When & how to apply

Applications are open now and you need to apply online with supporting evidence through the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRIDA) portal affectionately known as the QRIDA.

If you do not have a QRIDA profile you will need to create one.

Supporting Documents

You’ll need to provide proof along with your grant application. Again, put simply this includes:

business financial statements
business payroll records and/or payroll tax return information
BAS statements or Australian Taxation Office records

If you’re a Xero user you can get all these reports easily. If you need assistance generating your Xero reports then take a look at these helpers:

How to generate a balance sheet: https://central.xero.com/s/article/Balance-Sheet-New#Newversion
How to generate a profit & loss report: https://central.xero.com/s/article/Profit-and-Loss-New#Newversion
How to generate your payroll employee summary report: https://central.xero.com/s/article/Payroll-Employee-Summary-report

If you haven’t kept copies of your BASs, you can get copies of the BASs you’ve lodged via your login with the ATO’s Online Services.

What about the template letter an accountant can provide?

It looks like the letter requires us to do a mini audit or review of your affairs to provide this letter. As you know we don’t offer these services so we are investigating options.

We strongly recommend you don’t wait for us and put through your application otherwise you might miss out.

Applications close 16 November 2021.

Help

You access guidelines for applying for the grant as well as FAQs on their page: https://www.business.qld.gov.au/starting-business/advice-support/grants/covid19-support-grants

What other support can I seek?

The eligibility criteria indicates that if business owners are the only people on a business payroll the business is not eligible for the Grant.

CENTRELINK

You may be eligible for the Covid-19 Disaster Payment which is looked after by Centrelink. Find more information here.

SOLE TRADERS WITH NO EMPLOYEES

A $1,000 one-off grant to non-employing sole traders across Queensland If you are a Queensland-based non-employing sole trader who has had a decline in turnover of more than 30% due to the South East Queensland lockdown commencing 31 July 2021 or the Cairns and Yarrabah lockdown commencing 8 August 2021, you may be eligible for a one-off $1,000 grant.

Further information about the eligibility requirements will be available shortly. Register your interest here.

Posted by Sigrid Arundel | Posted in Business Planning, My Accountant Qld | Tags: MAQ Clients, planning, strategy |

May 2021

Tax Planning Tips – 2021 Edition

OMG June 30 is almost here!!

Get prepared, don’t wait.

We’ve released our 2021 Tax Planning Tips and you can find them here.

These tax tips don’t replace specific advice for your circumstance, but help you identify what might work for you. Call or email us now if you want specific advice because time is running out for us to do the number crunching and for you to make use of strategies that are right for you.

Our most often asked questions deserve special mention…

Super – If you pay super for employees make those payments early in June. You can only get a tax deduction if the super fund receives the money by 30 June. Law sets due dates for each quarter’s super contribution, but you can pay more often. If you run more pay runs in June then you could pay employee super after each pay run to maximise your deduction for the year.

Immediate Asset Write Off – there’s no upper limit to what you can claim outright, except for cars. If you purchase a car worth more than $59,136 before 30 June then the amount over that limit is not a tax deduction for you. You can’t claim the GST component on that excess either.

Structuring for Asset Protection & Tax Effectiveness – July 1 is a neat date to start off with a new structure. If you’re still operating as a sole trader or if you’re changing your business then it might be worth re-visiting your structure to ensure it’s still effective.

Company Loans – If possible repay loans to your company. Your company earns interest on loans it makes to you and this interest is taxable. You may also need to receive an unexpected and unwelcome dividend or bonus to repay all or part of the debt which will need to be included in your own tax return.

Companies with Losses – the new Loss carry back tax offset might be useful. Broadly if the company makes a loss in FY2020/21, this be able to be offset against FY2018/19 and/or FY2019/20 profit so that the company can benefit from a cash refund, a reduced tax liability or a reduction of a debt owing to the ATO. We’ll consider this when we do your 2021 year end work if it’s appropriate for you. Your company must be up to date in its lodgments to qualify.

Trustees – If you have a Trust then you need to make a Trust Distribution Resolution before 30 June to state how the Trust income will be distributed to beneficiaries and therefore how it’s taxed. For our clients, we base these on your tax plan if that’s available. If you don’t have a valid Trust Distribution Resolution before 30 June then you might not be happy with your tax result.

Please call us now if you want to do tax planning on (07) 5446 1226. Meanwhile, we wish you every success in the lead up to year end.

Posted by Sigrid Arundel | Posted in Business Planning, Inspiration | Tags: MAQ Clients, planning, strategy |

Apr 2018

Tax Planning Tips

It’s tax planning season!

Now’s the time to get one step ahead of the tax man.

Tax planning allows us to take a look into your future at 30 June. To do this we take a detailed look at your financial results, extrapolate these to the end of the year, and calculate what your tax position is likely to be.

Based on that data, we can then put thought into specific strategies that you can consider implementing prior to 30 June so that you spend money on what YOU want, rather than paying it to the ATO.

The ATO are happy for you to do tax planning, as long as it doesn’t turn into tax avoidance. See what they have to say here. Engaging qualified & experienced professionals will help you keep on the right side of the law.

If you are after general tax planning tips, click here.

Posted by Sigrid Arundel | Posted in Business Planning, My Accountant Qld, Tax Planning | Tags: MAQ Clients, planning |

Sep 2017

Is time management important to my profitable productive business?

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.
Determine if these are being done efficiently by people with the appropriate level of expertise. Ask yourself “is this task profitable productive for my business”.

What to do next

It’s easy, especially if you take a lazy approach. Do what gives you the least path of resistance.

Choose one task you’ve identified as not being done well and/or by the wrong people. Think of ways to do this differently & be creative. Just brainstorm. You might not be able to access all these options today, but might be able to later down the track.
Then choose the easiest option to implement now & go implement.

Thoughts about your options

Outsource wisely

You can outsource tasks to your staff or to external consultants. Don’t make your Sales Manager print & bind the proposal; give this task to your receptionist. Your Sales Manager should be focusing on leads, prospects & customers. Equally as the business owner you should lead the critical areas of your business, not take time unjamming copiers or running payroll.

Use technology

Don’t get bogged down in your business; keep an eye on the outside world & see how things are changing. Use time saving technology to give back time to you and your staff for more profitable activities.

Analyse Cost vs Benefit – before you implement

Run the numbers to understand the cost and the potential profit drivers to get the most from the change. Read more about this topic here.

We can certainly assist you in this area – just give us a ring.

Posted by Leanne Roberts | Posted in Business Planning | Tags: benchmark, planning |

Sep 2017

Getting the best return from your bottom line

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 your own home, having money in super for retirement, and holding investments like shares or rental property.

If your business has the right amount of assets generating an appropriate return on those assets, then

you’re earning the best money (profit) you’re able to earn on that investment
you’ll have an asset that you can sell to fund another “thing”; like a different investment or to help put towards your retirement

You can have an opinion on whether or not you think the business is doing OK. But to determine if you REALLY are doing well you need to do some analysis.

Optimise your return

You should understand whether or not you’re achieving the best return for all the capital you’ve invested in the business. This is what makes your business good, bad or so-so.

If the cost of running your business is eating into your profit (and cash) without you knowing, then it may be that simple tweaks will earn you more profit (and cash) without requiring you to make massive changes to the status quo.

How?

There are various ways to do this depending on your business. Yes, this step takes a bit of analysis & focussed thought.

It may be:

analysing “Return On Investment”
examining performance over time
bench marking to your industry

Then what?

Once you have done your analysis, you’ll be able to create options to improve your profitability.

An easy way to get started is to see where the “low hanging fruit” is; that is, what is the simplest, quickest, easiest thing to change which will yield a result that brings you one step closer to your goal.

If you do this process regularly, and implement a simple change each time, then you can make massive improvements to your profitability.

Need help?

We can help you understand where your business stands.

We can help you compare your unique historical trends as well as comparing your result to the rest of the world.

This is a great basis for discussion around getting the best return for your business.

Posted by Sigrid Arundel | Posted in Business Planning | Tags: benchmark, planning |

Sep 2017

Decisions you make in your business

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 the investment you’ve made in the business where you’ve contributed to the business in some way. This might be money you’ve put in over time, the purchase price you paid for the business, the earnings you’ve forfeited to invest further into your business.

Financing This is the method you’re using to put that Capital into the business. If you’ve not gone on holiday to use the funds for a gizmo for the business, then you’ve funded that transaction and contributed equity to your business (you sacrificed personal cash flows for the business). If your bank gave you the money for that gizmo, then you’ve increased debt in the business and not equity, probably to ease your cash flow. In this case you’re potentially building equity over time, and betting that your investment will yield greater returns than it costs.

Have you considered the investment decisions you’re making and the impact they are having?

What dice are you rolling each day? Better choices are made when you know and are OK with how they roll. Take time out to examine how things stand for you.

Lifestyle Is your lifestyle satisfactory? Do you get time out from your business? Are you confident choices made while you’re not there are in line with your plans?

Capital Are you satisfied that you are getting the returns from your capital investments?

Financing Are in control of your cash flow and satisfied with what’s happening?

If you don’t answer these questions with a 100% positive YES! then you should take some time out to consider your options to improve things.

An interesting challenge is to determine how much money your business generates for you for each hour you invest. If you include all that “bleed” time you will get a clearer view of the real cost to you.

If you have decided you want to improve your situation you don’t have to go it alone. We can help you analyse what’s happening, help you identify options to help you find the best solution for you.

Posted by Sigrid | Posted in Business Planning | Tags: planning, strategy |

Sep 2017

Planning with purpose

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 aspects you should consider.

Practicality. This is the actual execution of the plan. Do you have the people, skills, knowledge & resources you need?

Balance Sheet effect. How the plan impacts on your assets & liabilities. Does the plan build strength so that you achieve a return on your investment, get financier support and so on?

P&L effect. How the plan affects your business income, expenses, profitability and bottom line. What line items are affected by the plan and what might you need to do?

Cash flow effect. How the plan impacts your cash flow. Often there’s an upfront cost to recoup over time; how can you best manage that for you?

You’re the expert in the Practicality aspect. We’d love to be your sounding board in the other aspects so that you are clear on the ramifications & can plan your actions to get the best result for you.

Your “retirement fund” will love you for it!

Posted by Sigrid | Posted in Business Planning | Tags: planning, strategy |