Financial Abuse
Financial abuse may not be a common topic, yet statistically, it is a common problem (e.g. “Financial abuse is reaching epidemic proportions” – Women’s Information and Referral Exchange (WIRE), April 2018). Australian’s often hide their finances from others – we don’t usually tell people how much we earn, or the value of our portfolios. This […]
Work vehicles exempted from FBT?
The Australian Taxation Office (“ATO“) recently released Practical Compliance Guidance PCG 2018/3 (PCG 2018/3) to help employers determine whether the private use of work vehicles is “minor, infrequent and irregular”. The guidelines are important because excessive private use of work vehicles disqualifies those vehicles from being fully exempt from Fringe Benefits Tax (“FBT“). Employers now […]
Small Business Tax Concessions – Basics
In addition to the capital gains tax (“CGT“) exemptions and rollovers available more widely, there are four concessions that allow you to disregard or defer some or all of a capital gain from an active asset used in a small business: 15-year exemption – If your business has continuously owned an active asset for 15 years […]
FBT and entertainment
New changes to salary packaged entertainment From 1 April 2016, all employers providing salary packaged meal entertainment or entertainment facility leasing expenses (EFLE) benefits to employees will be unable to use the 50/50 split method and 12 week register method for valuing the salary packaged benefits. Only the actual method can be used to determine […]
DPNs to GST?
As part of the 2018 Federal Budget, the Government announced a package of reforms aimed at addressing illegal phoenix activity. One of the more significant measures is to extend the Director Penalty Regime to Goods and Services Tax (“GST“) and other indirect tax debts of a company. The Director Penalty Regime allows the Commissioner to make […]
Controlling your superannuation
How to Control Your Superannuation Most people want to take control of their superannuation. There are a few things you can do for making the most of your super. Minimise your super fees The first thing you can do is look at minimising your super fees. It is estimated that 20% of Australian’s pay more […]
Tax changes for trust splitting
A draft taxation determination released recently has triggered some alarm among trustees that certain previously benign trust re-arrangements may soon lead to new tax obligations being attached. TD 2018/D3 posits that certain trust split arrangements should be viewed as the creation of a new trust over some, but not all, of the assets held by the […]
Managing carried forward losses
You operate a company Your accountant set you up in a company and in recent years things have been pretty tough business wise so much so that the company has incurred significant losses. Your business partner who feels the business cannot afford 2 owners and who owns the other 50%, has asked you to buy them […]
What is Division 7A? A basic explanation
Division 7A only applies to private companies, all loans, advances and other credits made by private companies to shareholders (or their associates), and so is highly relevant in the SME market. This is an area of high risk for the ATO. Craig Dangar notes that this is an area of concern for many businesses, especially […]
GST on eBay
As of 1 July 2018, Australian goods and services tax (“GST“) will apply to sales of low value goods imported by consumers into Australia. Craig notes that the consequence of this will a significant administrative burden for small operators but this can be managed effectively through a good bookkeeping arrangement. Businesses that meet the registration threshold […]
