Super to be paid on payday from 1 July 2026; more action to catch non-payers The Budget papers confirmed the Government’s intention to require all employers to pay their employees’ super guarantee amounts at the same time as their salary and wages from 1 July 2026. This payday super measure was originally announced by the […]
Small business lodgment penalty amnesty The Government announced that a lodgment penalty amnesty program will be provided for small businesses with aggregate turnover of less than $10 million to encourage them to re-engage with the tax system. The amnesty will remit failure-to-lodge penalties for outstanding tax statements lodged in the period from 1 June 2023 to […]
Small business instant asset write-off: $20,000 threshold for 2023–2024 The Government will temporarily increase the instant asset write-off threshold to $20,000 from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. Small businesses – those with aggregated annual turnover of less than $10 million – will be able to immediately deduct the full cost of eligible assets […]
Personal tax rates unchanged for 2023–2024 In the Budget, the Government did not announce any personal tax rates changes. The Stage 3 tax changes commence from 1 July 2024, as previously legislated. The 2023–2024 tax rates and income thresholds for residents (unchanged since 2021–2022) are: Stage 3: from 2024–2025 The Budget did not announce any […]
In February 2022, the High Court handed down a landmark decision in ZG Operations v Jamsek, which clarified the test for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. The High Court remitted the question of whether the workers were “employees” under the extended definition of that term in s 12(3) of […]
As flagged earlier in the year when the announcement was made, the Federal Government recently released a consultation paper on its proposal to reduce super tax concessions for individuals with super balances over $3 million, including those with self managed super funds (SMSFs). Some important questions the paper asked included whether the proposal would create […]
Individual property investors should be aware that the ATO has announced a new data matching program that will obtain data from various financial institutions for the 2021–2022 to 2025–2026 income years. Records relating to approximately 1.7 million individuals will be obtained each financial year and used to identify relevant cases for administrative action, including compliance […]
With the increasing popularity and uptake of electric vehicles (EVs), the ATO has now released a draft compliance guideline which contains the methodology for calculating the cost of electricity when an eligible electric vehicle is charged at an employee’s or an individual’s home. The methodology can be applied for FBT from 1 April 2022 and […]
The ATO has warned content creators that they need to be aware of their income tax and GST obligations. TIP: Examples of content creators are individuals who write a blog, post make-up tutorials to social media or stream gaming or other activities for others to watch. If you start making money from your online content, […]
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has released results of its recent review on improving arrangements for life insurance in super funds. The review was conducted as a follow-up to issues first identified in 2019, when ASIC found that some super trustees offered insurance that unnecessarily erodes a member’s retirement balance, inappropriate coverage of […]
The ATO has recently reported there is now $16 billion in lost and unclaimed super across Australia, and is urging Australians to check their MyGov account to see if some of the money is theirs. Super becomes “lost super” when it’s still held by the fund but the member is uncontactable or the account is […]
Late in 2022, amendments to the tax law passed Parliament that, among other things, included a measure to allow the ATO to issue a “tax-records education direction” where the Commissioner of Taxation reasonably believes that an entity has failed to comply with one or more specified record-keeping obligations. As an alternative to imposing a financial […]
It’s FBT time again, and for the 2022–2023 FBT year it’s important to remember that your business may be able to get an exemption for certain eligible electric vehicles made available for the private use of your employees. To meet the conditions for exemption, the car must be either a battery electric vehicle, a hydrogen […]
Families struggling with the current cost of living crisis could soon have some relief with cheaper child care coming mid-year. The recently passed child care subsidy reforms were a component of Labor’s election platform, with a promise to make early childhood education and child care more affordable. According to the government, with the passing of […]