Relevant For: Small business owners and operators with turnover under $10 million seeking tax-effective asset purchases Key Points: The $20,000 instant asset write-off has been extended to 30 June 2025. Applies to assets first used or installed ready for use between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025. Eligibility requires use of simplified depreciation rules […]
Relevant For: People seeking financial or tax advice online Key Points: Social media “finfluencers” often give unqualified tax advice that may lead to serious financial penalties. Only registered tax agents are legally authorised to provide tax advice in Australia. Misguided advice from unqualified sources can result in incorrect returns and back taxes. Registered agents follow […]
The Government will provide $3.5 billion over three years from 2023–2024 to extend and expand the Energy Bill Relief Fund and provide a $300 rebate to all Australian households and a $325 rebate to eligible small businesses on 2024–2025 bills.
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 first used or installed ready for use for a taxable purpose between […]
There are no further details contained in the Budget papers on the announced changes to the way that the indexation factor applied to HELP debts will be calculated. Here is an outline of the recently proposed changes. A student who receives a HELP loan under any of the student loan schemes has an “accumulated HELP […]
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) Act 2024) commence from 1 July 2024. The Treasurer said […]
No changes were made to the low income tax offset (LITO) in the 2024–2025 Budget. For completeness, and as a reminder, while the low and middle income tax offset (LMITO) ceased from 1 July 2022, low and middle income taxpayers remain entitled to the LITO. The maximum amount of the LITO is $700. The LITO is […]
The Medicare levy low-income thresholds for 2023–2024 would normally have been announced in this 2024–2025 Budget. However, the Government released the 2023–2024 Medicare levy thresholds on 25 January 2024 when it announced the changes to the Stage 3 tax cuts. The new thresholds to provide cost-of-living relief were enacted by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost […]
The Budget papers did not reveal any further details on the Government’s proposal to require all employers to pay their employees’ super guarantee (SG) at the same time as their salary and wages from 1 July 2026. However, the Government said it will provide $111.8 million over four years from 2024-25 (and $12.4 million per year […]
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 non-BAS refunds. The extended period […]
The Government will provide $187.0 million over four years from 1 July 2024 to the ATO to strengthen its ability to detect, prevent and mitigate fraud against the tax and superannuation systems. Measures to be funded includes: upgrades to information and communications technologies to enable the ATO to identify and block suspicious activity in real […]
The Government will extend the ATO Shadow Economy Compliance Program for two years from 1 July 2026. This measure is estimated to increase receipts by $1.9 billion and increase payments by $610.2 million over the 5 years from 2023–2024. This includes an increase in GST payments to the states and territories of $429.6 million. It will […]
Relevant For: Business owners dealing with private company loans, who need to ensure compliance with tax laws to avoid costly mistakes. Key Points: Division 7A treats loans from private companies to shareholders/associates as dividends unless conditions are met. Loans must be repaid by the lodgement day or meet specific conditions to avoid dividend classification. Complying […]
The ATO has been trying to crackdown on the use of trusts for many years and has recently released the following draft ruling, guideline and taxpayer alert relating to trust distributions that have associated reimbursement agreements: Draft Taxation Ruling (TR 2022/D1) – this deals with the ATO’s views on when section 100A will apply; Draft Practical Compliance Guideline […]
The expansion of Single Touch Payroll (STP2 / STP Phase 2), significantly increases the amount of payroll information that needs to be reported to the ATO. It is hoped that this additional reporting will assist in ensuring employees are paid correctly as well as reducing the need for employers to report information about employees to […]
The concept of “negative gearing” essentially means that your property makes a tax loss from renting. As a result, the ATO may effectively pay for some of the rental costs due to an increase in your tax refund (or reduction in your tax liability). Why would anyone want to be negatively geared? There are two main reasons: […]
There are generous tax incentives currently available which are designed to attract and encourage investment into early-stage Australian companies (i.e. Startups & ScaleUps). The Government has announced it will review these tax incentives. These tax incentives include: The Early Stage Innovation Company (ESIC) Tax Offset, which is a non-refundable carry forward tax offset equal to […]
One of the big ones when it comes to Division 7A Mess Ups is underpayment or nonpayment of interest. Failure to satisfy the conditions of a complying Division 7A loan or a subtrust investment arrangement is considered a breach. Underpayment or nonpayment of interest is such a breach. Underpayment can occur by using the wrong […]
Division 7A has all sorts of ways of being triggered and one of the ways is the private use of property and luxury goods. Broadly, the simple scenario is where a company owns a house, car or boat and a family member uses that house, car or boat for private use without paying a market […]
Over the last decade accountants on behalf of their clients have had to deal with the UPE issue. When a trust makes a company entitled to income but does not actually transfer the money to the company to clear out the entitlement, this is called an “unpaid present entitlement” (UPE). If a UPE persists then […]
As a brief preamble, a loan a company made to shareholders or associates before 4 December 1997 (“pre-97 Loan”) and an unpaid present entitlement from a trust to a company made before 16 December 2009 (“pre-09 UPE”) are typically ‘quarantined’ from the ATO’s Division 7A compliance action. In simple terms, if your company has either […]
In recent months we’ve had several people approach us for help with Division 7A due to errors made by their previous accountant. As specialists in Division 7A and WA’s GO-TO in fixing disastrous Division 7A errors, we thought it prudent to publish this series on some of the most common Division 7A Mess Ups. Part […]
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL EMPLOYERS Single Touch Payroll (“STP”) is a new compliance obligation for employers regarding the transmission of payroll information to the ATO (employee name, TFN, wages, tax and super). To satisfy the Single Touch Payroll obligations, employers will either use their own payroll software or engage a third party (e.g. accountant) to […]
Recently I had the pleasure of attending the ASNAF conference in Goa, India. ASNAF is an alliance of accounting firms in various countries across Asia and Australasia; and Munro’s is the only firm in the alliance from Western Australia. Through the ASNAF alliance, Munro’s leverages the local expertise of member firms from countries in Asia […]
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