News Updates

With business conditions picking up in Australia, many business owners are thinking about the equipment they will need in order to evolve in the years ahead.

Whether it’s a new delivery van or a high-end digital printer, up-to-date equipment and tools are essential for business success. In the May 2021 Federal Budget, the government announced full write-off of eligible business assets will be available for another year, so the opportunity to tool up is even more attractive.

 

Following on from the revelation that the bulk of tax collected by the ATO comes from individual taxpayers, it comes as no surprise that the ATO is continuing to target this sector to squeeze out every last tax dollar. This time, it has announced another new data-matching program on novated leases, this is in addition to the plethora of data-matching programs already announced this year on an eclectic range of areas including rental properties, motor vehicles, residency, contractor payments, and cryptocurrency.

Owners of lifestyle assets beware, the ATO has extended its data-matching program for another 2 years. The lifestyle assets data-matching program has been running since February 2016 and in the past collected data from the 2013-14 to the 2019-20 financial years. It will now be extended to include the 2020-21 through to 2022-23 financial years.

Stay up to date with what's happened in Australian markets over the past month.

Our September update video takes you through key economic indicators, as August provided mixed economic news, with central banks, business and consumers remaining cautious.
 

From 1 July 2021, a whole raft of superannuation changes as a part of the government’s more flexible superannuation changes has come into effect. Three of the most important changes consist of the increase in bring-forward arrangement contributions cap, the removal of the excess contributions charge, and re-contribution changes.

As many tenants and landlords turn their attention to their 2020-21 tax returns, one of the big questions is perhaps how they should treat rental concessions provided and received during the last financial year as a result of COVID-19. Tax treatment of these rental concessions depends on a variety of factors and are outlined below.

The Government is continuing to tighten the eligibility rules for claiming tax concessions relating to small business capital gains tax (CGT) obligations.

If you qualify, these concessions can have a big impact on how much of the profit from the sale of a business asset you get to keep, and how much goes to the tax man.

Given the generous nature of the concessions, the ATO is keen to ensure they are used appropriately.

The ATO has announced that it will be conducting a new data-matching program with information from the Department of Home Affairs on passenger movements during the 2016-17 to 2022-23 income years. It will use this data to determine whether business entities and individuals are residents and whether they have met their lodgment and registration obligations.

Many of you have heard of family trusts, but perhaps don’t know too much about their benefits and how they differ from the usual non-fixed trusts. Essentially, a family trust is a trust where the trustee has made a valid family trust election (FTE) for tax purposes. By becoming a family trust, the trust is able to access certain tax concessions which may be beneficial.

Rental property owners beware, the ATO has commenced 2 data-matching programs designed to obtain a myriad of information to ensure that various income tax reporting obligations have been met. Specifically, the ATO will run a new data-matching program to collect property management data for the 2018-19 to 2022-23 financial years, and extend the existing rental bond data-matching program through to 30 June 2023.