News/Blog
Stay up to date with all our latest news, guidance and regulatory information here. We like to focus on the practical implications of changes to tax, insurance and financial planning legislation as well as offering insights on topical issues relevant to our clients.
LATEST ARTICLES
How do you compare to your competition?
It has been a very challenging time for businesses, and small businesses in particular have been greatly impacted by the pandemic. In order to survive, business owners have had to look outside of their usual ways of working and find new opportunities. Many will have had to adapt their business structures to meet Covid-19 restrictions, such as taking their business online, and others may have had to downsize with the view to being more flexible if further restrictions are imposed. Whatever the situation, the business landscape has probably changed for you, so it would be a good opportunity to benchmark your business against similar businesses in your sector. This would give you a grasp on where your business is sitting amongst competition and potentially give you some ideas for how to make improvements. Whether you’re running a cafe, a dental practice, a dog grooming franchise or an automotive repair shop, all small businesses can benefit from benchmarking to see how your performance ranks, giving you a clearer picture of where improvements can be made. The ATO release updated benchmarking information each year based on [...]
Low and Middle-Income Tax Offset ends
You may have read in the news this week that many Australians will have less money in their pockets in the next financial year. This is due to the low and middle-income tax offset ending on 30 June 2021. As part of the Federal Budget 2020, the treasurer announced an extension of the low and middle -income tax offset until 30 June 2021. This means that when you lodge your tax return for the 20/21 tax year and earn less than $126,000, you will receive a tax relief refund on assessment. If you have already lodged your individual tax return, you may have already received the tax relief. Remember the individual tax return deadline through Taxpro is 15th May 2021. The low and middle-income tax offset meant that eligible individuals earning between $48,000 and $90,000 had tax relief of up to $1080. For those earning between $37,001 - $47,999, they had tax relief from $255 to $1080, and anyone who earned up to $37,000 had their tax reduced by up to $255. This was always a temporary measure and an additional tax relief for [...]
Individual tax return deadline – when is it due?
For most, the last date you can lodge your individual tax return through Taxpro Australia is 15 May 2021 without incurring any penalty from the ATO. If you have not lodged your return yet, please contact your Taxpro accountant to book an appointment or to schedule a telephone interview at your earliest convenience. We do become very busy in the lead up to this deadline, so please book in early. With just over one month until the deadline, it’s time to get all your financial information in order for the 19/20 financial year (1 July 2019 - 30 June 2020). As a reminder we need the following documents for your appointment: For salary and wage earners PAYG payment summaries Investment income – Interest on bank accounts & dividends received on shares Private health statements Work-related expenses - Motor vehicle expenses - Travelling expenses - Uniforms - Self-educated expenses - Union fees - Seminars/ courses - Trade journals - Computer costs, including internet access - Mobile & telephone costs – only the work-related portion - Tools & equipment - Professional registrations - Sun protection costs [...]
The end of JobKeeper – business advice
The JobKeeper Payment scheme to help support businesses during the pandemic finished on 28 March 2021. As a business, your final JobKeeper payments should have been made by this date and remember that your monthly business declarations for JobKeeper fortnights in March need to be completed by 14 April 2021 to receive final JobKeeper payments. The end of JobKeeper will undoubtedly be a stressful time for many businesses, with some sectors being affected more than others. Restructuring, redundancies and a pause on spending may impact your business as your customers navigate the next few months, having a knock-on effect throughout the supply chain. Cashflow will be the greatest challenge and throughout the pandemic we have been advising clients to proactively plan ahead for this time. If payments are not coming in when expected, it’s hard for businesses to then pay suppliers and staff and keep afloat. Positive cash flow is particularly important for small businesses. We can help you firstly, by giving you a better understanding of the health of your business, and then give practical ways to improve your cash flow through planning, [...]
Are you spending too much time doing business admin?
If you kept a record of all the unbillable time you spend on business admin and accounting tasks, how much does it cost you? And, how often does it eat into your personal time? If you take into consideration all the extra hours you put in to invoice clients, pay suppliers, chase payments, process payroll, itemise your expenses, prepare your BAS, check and respond to emails, and keep up to date with all your industry news…… it can feel like a part-time unpaid job on top of a full-time job! Help is at hand! We can help you implement time saving accounting software and also support you with a bookkeeping service that corresponds to your business size and sector. We use MYOB - QuickBooks which is an easy online accounting software especially built for small businesses. It creates your invoices for you, helps you manage your expenses and report Single Touch Payroll to meet the ATO requirements and much more. We also advise our clients to use the Receipt Bank app, an online system that automatically converts your receipt into data masking it super [...]
Interest rates unchanged at record low 0.10%
The Royal Bank of Australia (RBA) met earlier this month (2 February 2021) and decided to leave interest rates unchanged at 0.10% where it has remained since November 2020. The RBA Governor Phillip Lowe said the economic recovery was faster than expected but the outlook depends on the success of the vaccine and the maintenance of fiscal and monetary stimulus. This means it is unlikely to increase before 2024. How does this affect you? First-time buyers and personal loans If you are looking for a mortgage and/ or finance, then this would be a great time to shop around for a good deal. Our mortgage broker Andrew can help you with that. You just need to be aware that mortgage lenders and banks will only pass on a partial cut. In the short term the home loan will be cheaper, however it is important not to stretch yourself and consider affordability when interest rates rise again. The advantage you have now is that the low interest rates are pinned for around another three years so you can plan. Homeowners The central bank will be [...]
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