ATO's lodgment penalty amnesty is about to end The ATO is remitting failure to lodge penalties for eligible small businesses. Businesses which have not yet taken advantage of the ATO's lodgment penalty amnesty only have until 31 December 2023 to do so. Businesses must meet the following criteria in order to be eligible for the [...]
Year-end (and other) staff parties Editor: With the well earned December/January holiday season on the way, many employers will be planning to reward staff with a celebratory party or event. However, there are important issues to consider, including the possible FBT and income tax implications of providing 'entertainment' (including Christmas parties) to staff and clients. [...]
A new process has been introduced by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for nominating a registered agent. This new process is called ‘Client-to-agent linking’ and, effective from 13 November 2023, it applies to all taxpayers with an Australian Business Number (ABN), excluding sole traders. As a result of this change, you will need to take [...]
As of May 9, 2023, as part of the 2023-24 Budget, the government has introduced a lodgment penalty amnesty program aimed at encouraging small businesses to re-engage with the tax system and bring their obligations up-to-date. This amnesty specifically covers overdue income tax returns, business activity statements, and fringe benefits tax returns that were originally [...]
Tax issues for businesses that have received a support payment Taxpayers who have received a government support grant or payment recently to help their business recover from COVID-19 or a natural disaster should check if they need to include the payment in their assessable income. Grants are generally treated as assessable income, and taxpayers may [...]
Appointing an SMSF auditor The ATO reminds SMSF trustees that they need to appoint an approved SMSF auditor for each income year, no later than 45 days before they need to lodge their SMSF annual return. An SMSF’s audit must be finalised before the trustees lodge their SMSF annual return, as the trustees will need [...]
Claiming GST credits for employee expense reimbursements Employers may be entitled to claim GST input tax credits for payments they have made to reimburse employees for expenses that are directly related to their business activities. A ‘reimbursement’ is provided when a taxpayer pays their employee the amount, or part of the amount, of a particular [...]
Court penalises AMP $24 million for charging deceased customers The Federal Court has found that four companies that are or were part of the AMP Group breached the law when charging life insurance premiums and advice fees from the superannuation accounts of more than 2,000 deceased customers. The Federal Court ordered two of these AMP [...]
2023/24 Budget Update On 9 May 2023, Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down the 2023/24 Federal Budget. Some of the measures announced by the Government (including some which were actually announced prior to the Budget), include: - from 1 July 2026, employers will be required to pay their employees’ superannuation at the same time as their [...]
Last chance to claim deductions under temporary full expensing Deductions under ‘temporary full expensing’ are only available in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 income years, and are expected to come to an end on 30 June 2023. Editor: Under temporary full expensing, businesses with an aggregated turnover of less than $5 billion can generally claim [...]
