The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has been concerned for some time about how many professional services firms are structured – specifically, professional practices such as lawyers, architects, medical practices, engineers, architects etc., operating through trusts, companies and partnerships of discretionary trusts and how the profits from these practices are being taxed.
Read MoreA fringe benefit is a ‘payment’ to an employee or an associate (an associate is someone related to you such as a spouse, child or even a friend), but in a different form to salary or wages. A benefit might be as simple as hosting a work Christmas party, providing car parking, using a work vehicle, or providing the goods or services of the business at a reduced rate to what the public pay.
Read MoreCompanies that received JobKeeper and subsequently paid dividends to shareholders and executive bonuses have come under particular scrutiny, not just by the regulators but by public opinion.
Read MoreA sole trader who was able to backdate his ABN has won access to JobKeeper payments in a recent case before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).
Read MoreThe impact of COVID-19 has been felt very differently from region to region. Fortunes vary wildly between business operators subject to ongoing lockdowns and trading impediments to those benefiting from the “new normal”.
Read MoreWith the borders between the State and Territories all but open and 2021 in sight, there is a hunger for a return to ‘normal’. The recent Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment articulates this desire to ‘get on with things’; sentiment reached its highest level since November 2013 and Christmas spending is expected to be consistent with previous years.
Read MoreThe ATO has extended the JobKeeper monthly business declaration deadline for the month of December until 28 January 2021 (from 14 Jan 2021).
Read MoreIn the 2020-21 Federal Budget, the Government announced that businesses with turnover under $5bn* will be able to offset any losses made between 2019-20 and 2021-22 against previously taxed profits between 2018-19 and 2020-21.
Read MoreAt the recent Senate Estimates hearing, Jeremy Hirschhorn, the ATO’s Second Commissioner, stated that $120 million in JobKeeper payments had been clawed back from those either deliberately seeking to rort the system or who had made reckless mistakes.
Read MoreThe 2020-21 personal income tax cuts announced in the Federal are now law.
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