Reward for work is a dominant theme in this year’s Budget. The seven year personal income tax plan initially targets low to middle income earners before making significant changes to the tax brackets.

Innovation continues to be the Government’s mantra with the medical industry a clear winner. The Government has dedicated a total of $1.3 billion to fund genomic research projects investigating medicines that can be tailored to individual patients, clinical trials of new drugs and development of new medical technologies.

Workplace functions are a great way for organisations to recognise the hard work of all staff, celebrate their achievements and give colleagues the opportunity to get to know each other in a social setting. The combination of various factors, including the glee of celebration, the relaxed party atmosphere and the consumption of alcohol, can lead to questionable behaviour and impaired judgment. Employers must therefore be aware of their legal obligations and take precautions to minimise risks arising out of incidents that occur at such functions.

very vendor selling a property needs to prove that they are a resident of Australia for tax purposes unless they are happy for the purchaser to withhold a 12.5% withholding tax. From 1 July 2017, every individual selling a property with a sale value of $750,000 or more is affected.

While these rules have been in place since 1 July 2016, on 1 July 2017 the threshold for properties reduced from $2 million to $750,000 and the withholding tax level increased from 10% to 12.5%

The intent of the foreign resident CGT withholding rules is to ensure that tax is collected on the sale of taxable Australian property by foreign residents. But, the mechanism for collecting the tax affects everyone regardless of their residency status.

The difference between an employee and an independent contractor has been an issue causing much confusion amongst small business for a long time.

Some of the more common industries we find that are caught up in this confusion include building and construction, cleaning, road transport, engineering and information technology industry (IT).

The Australian Taxation Office has been on the record saying while most business try to do the right thing, some deliberately treat their employees as contractors to illegally lower their labour costs by not withholding tax or paying the superannuation guarantee.