Managing the Debt Drain Dealing with delinquent debtors is painful, particularly when you can’t afford to lose the customer. The most obvious tactic is to stay on top of debtors: Ensure that your contracts and invoices have clear payment terms, and you have a procedure to follow through once a customer breaks these terms. Importantly,…
From 1 July 2017, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will inform credit rating agencies of businesses that have outstanding tax debts. Given 65.2% ($12.5 billion worth) of these late payers are small businesses, the move will put significant pressure on business operators to prioritise tax debt above other creditors. Announced in the Mid-Year Economic and…
Payroll is one of the most important parts of running a business. But for many employers, organising everything can be a bit of a struggle – especially in the midst of trying to expand and grow an enterprise. Yet payroll remains a crucial part of the business process, and as a result, entrepreneurs can’t afford…
Businesses that have bought cars and living away from home allowances Data matching has become more sophisticated over the years to the point where there very few transactions you can make without the ATO knowing about it. While the officers at the ATO don’t go through data line by line they do look at anomalies. …
Salary packaging has been less attractive over the last few years with the higher FBT rate and restrictions being placed on some of the popular FBT concessions. With the FBT rate change from 1 April 2017, it’s important to review all existing arrangements and make sure that everyone understands – employers and employees – what…
Log books need to be kept by employers using the operating cost method for FBT purposes so that they can estimate and validate the business use percentage of a car. The more personal use the more tax paid. Anyone who has been through this process knows it is time-consuming, particularly where there are multiple cars.…
Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) rate to decrease 1 April 2017 The FBT rate change is because of the 2% Debt Tax (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) on high-income earners which imposes a 2% levy on every dollar of a taxpayer’s annual taxable income over $180,000 from 1 July 2014 until 30 June 2017. The FBT rate…
There is currently a lot of discussion on these super changes and what you should do. We outline below some common questions for your reference. Please note these comments are not intended to be advice and they will not have application in all circumstances. It is critical that you seek specific advice before finalising any…
For the purposes of the $1.6m pension cap (transfer balance cap), defined benefit pensions (e.g. lifetime pensions historically received in the public sector and some private sector legacy pensions, such as market linked pensions) will be subject to special valuation rules as these pensions do not generally have an underlying capital balance (ie they are…
Transition to retirement pensions will not qualify for any earnings tax exemption from 1 July 2017. All earnings on transition to retirement pension assets will be taxed at the standard super fund tax rate of 15%. A transition to retirement pension is generally a pension received by someone between the ages of 55 to 65…