New workplace award rules coming into force on March 1

All employers with employees on fixed annual salaries are now on notice about new award rules coming into force on March 1st.

Australia embraces Black Friday and Cyber Monday

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale concepts have well and truly arrived in Australia with retailers embracing this latest retail event to stimulate what has been an economically lack lustre year.

Are you paying your staff correctly? Woolworths $200m plus remediation

Woolworths is the latest company to facing a fallout from the underpayment of staff. In what is believed to be the largest remediation of its kind, Woolworths have stated that they have underpaid 5,700 salaried team members with remediation expected to be in the range of $200m to $300m (before tax).

Financial Accounting, Corporate Secretarial, TaxationJPR BUSINESS GROUP1 November 2019tax, wages, wage theft

Super Guarantee Amnesty Resurrected

The Government has resurrected the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) amnesty giving employers that have fallen behind with their SG obligations the ability to “self-correct.” This time however, the incentive of the amnesty is strengthened by harsh penalties for those that fail to take action.

Towards Zero Interest Rates (and what it means to you)

The Reserve Bank of Australia is widely tipped to reduce interest rates again to historic lows. Easton Wealth economist Emmanuel Calligeris explores the impact.

Uber style ride sharing and FBT

The ATO has confirmed its view that travel in ride sharing services is not exempt from FBT under this specific exemption as they do not meet the definition of a taxi service under the FBT laws (even though they do under GST law).

However, this does not mean that FBT will necessarily apply to travel undertaken by employees using a ride sharing service.

Corporate Secretarial, TaxationJPR BUSINESS GROUP9 August 2019FBT, Fringe benefit tax, ride share, uber, taxation

The Government doesn't want your business accepting cash payments of $10,000 or more - why?

From 1 January 2020, the Government intends to restrict the value of cash payments a business makes or accepts to amounts under $10,000. Ignoring the limit will become a criminal offence with penalties of up to 2 years in prison and/ or $25,200*.

Single Touch Payroll Update

The ATO has reminded employers that legislation has been passed to extend Single Touch Payroll ('STP') to include all employers from 1 July 2019.

This will be a gradual start, and not all employers will start reporting at the same time.

How to prepare for a Tax Office visit

The Tax Office is actively targeting geographic areas for special visits as part of a nationwide crackdown on the black economy.

This financial year, the ATO has visited 22 regions with another four in progress. Next financial year they plan on visiting over 10,000 businesses.

Tax time: Are you right in the ATO's sights?

A consistent theme this tax time is overclaiming and under reporting. With the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) getting more and more sophisticated in its data matching approaches, taxpayers can expect greater scrutiny where their claims are more than what is expected. We take a look at the key issues for you, your business and your SMSF.