ATO BAS notification period extended The Government will extend the time the ATO has to notify a taxpayer if it intends to retain a business activity statement (BAS) refund for further investigation. The ATO’s mandatory notification period for BAS refund retention will be increased from 14 days to 30 days to align with time limits for […]
$20,000 instant asset write-off for small business extended to 30 June 2025 The Government will extend the instant asset write-off concession for small businesses for another 12 months. This will allow small businesses with turnovers capped at $10 million to immediately deduct the full cost of eligible depreciating assets costing less than $20,000 that are […]
Personal tax rates: Stage 3 (as revised) confirmed from 2024–2025 In the 2024–2025 Federal Budget, the Government did not announce any further changes to the personal tax rates. The Government’s revised Stage 3 tax changes (as announced on 25 January 2024 and enacted into law by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Tax Cuts) […]
The annual super performance test was introduced in 2021, by the previous Coalition government, as a way to hold registrable superannuation entity (RSE) licensees to account for any super fund underperformance through enforcing greater transparency. The annual test, conducted by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), also allowed members of funds and products to move […]
In a bid to improve retirement outcomes for Australian women, the government has recently announced that from 1 July 2025 it will commence paying super on government paid parental leave (PPL), along with making other changes to expand the PPL scheme. This follows appeals from unions and women’s rights groups, and a growing body of […]
Employers that provide certain fringe benefits to their employees can now use appropriate alternative statutory evidentiary documents to satisfy FBT requirements from the FBT year ending 31 March 2025. This has come about with the registration of ATO legislative instruments that specify acceptable record-keeping obligations for certain FBT benefits. These instruments, along with complementary legislation […]
Recently, the ATO updated its small business benchmarks to encompass the 2021–2022 income year. While the ATO promotes these benchmarks as an aid for small businesses to enable them to compare expenses and turnover with other similar small businesses in the same industry, it is important to note that these benchmarks are also used by […]
The ATO-led Serious Financial Crime Taskforce (SFCT) is warning businesses against using illegal financial arrangements such as false invoicing to avoid tax obligations and/or inflate their deductions. The SFCT is a multi-agency taskforce which combats financial crimes like tax evasion and fraud. It was established in 2015 as a collaborative effort among various law enforcement […]
In response to the ATO’s recent actions on reactivating or offsetting old tax debts, the Commonwealth Ombudsman/ACT Ombudsman and the Inspector-General of Taxation and Taxation Ombudsman (IGTO) have jointly issued new guidelines aimed at improving how Australians are notified about debts they owe to the government. The guidelines report outlines principles designed to ensure that […]
To safeguard retirement savings held in self managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) from fraud and misconduct, the ATO is rolling out new security features. One new feature consists of checking for a match between an employee’s SMSF bank account details and the SMSF record when electronic payments are made via the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House […]
The Treasurer has announced that the Federal Government will pay superannuation on paid parental leave from 1 July 2025. The intention is that the superannuation will be administered by the ATO, meaning that employers will not have to process these payments on the government’s behalf. Further details of this measure, including cost, will be released […]
The ATO will once again be running its data matching program on novated leases in 2024, covering the 2023–2024 to 2025–2026 income years. This program first commenced in 2021, collecting data from the 2018–2019 income year. Novated lease data will be collected from various fleet and leasing groups, including McMillian Shakespeare Group, Smartgroup Corporation, SG […]
With the return of international conferences for various occupations, the deductibility of expenses such as accommodation, meals and course fees related to self-education will once again come into play at tax time. Generally, work-related self-education expenses are tax-deductible if they enhance skills and knowledge, or lead to an income increase related to current income-producing work, […]
With the revised stage 3 tax cuts now law, it’s a good time to understand how these changes will affect you and how to plan your taxes for the future more effectively. The new rates will apply from 1 July 2024. For the current income year, an individual who earns $67,600 annually (the median income […]
Establishing a self managed superannuation fund (SMSF) offers a variety of benefits, so it is perhaps no surprise that in the latest data released by the ATO, the number of SMSFs in Australia continues to grow as more people seek to take advantage of the control and flexibility offered. In the five years to 30 June […]