Hardly Equal: 5 Ways Big Business is Keeping Women Out of the Workforce
By Julian Nowland
Is it a Business or a Hobby?
It may seem fairly obvious whether a person is in business or not, but the distinction can be important for other reasons. For example, if you are not carrying on a business, the option to deduct losses from other income is lost. So it’s important to establish, from a tax obligation point of view, that…
Using the Small Business Benchmarks
The ATO has a database of “small business benchmarks” against which it compares lodged information. But business owners can also benefit by using the small business benchmarks to compare their own performance. It says the small business benchmarks: are calculated from income tax returns and activity statements from more than 1.3 million small businesses and…
Tax Time is Prime Time for Scams
The ATO is reminding taxpayers that tax time is prime time for scams, and to be on the lookout for tax-related scams during Tax Time 2016. It points out that fraudulent activity surrounding tax is on the increase, noting that in 2015 almost 87,000 phone and email scams were reported to the ATO, which it…
Tax Time 2016: Work and Rental Property Claims
The ATO encourages people to check which work and rental property-related expenses they are entitled to claim this tax time, and to understand what records they need to keep. Assistant Commissioner Graham Whyte has reminded taxpayers that there has been a change in the rules for calculating car expenses this year, and people need to…
Lifetime $500,000 Non-Concessional Superannuation Cap
As announced in the 2016–2017 Federal Budget, the Government has proposed a lifetime non-concessional superannuation contributions cap of $500,000 to apply from Budget night (3 May 2016). This means that people who are planning to make non-concessional contributions now need to check their historical non-concessional contributions data back to 1 July 2007 (which will be…
ATO Clearance Certificates for Property Disposals
A new foreign resident capital gains withholding tax regime has been introduced. The new rules will apply where real property contracts are entered into on or after 1 July 2016, but will only apply to sales of residential property where it has a market value of $2 million or more. Where the new rules apply,…
Tax Minimisation Strategies 2016
Tax Minimisation Strategies 2016 Year End 2016 has arrived. Be sure to address any outstanding issues relative to your tax position for optimal benefit. Business clients who have not migrated to Xero, beautiful accounting software, now is the most ideal time to setup ready for trading 1 July. Individual clients who seek a budget solution…
Managing Your Relationship with Your Accountant
Tip No. 1 – Recognise your Strengths and Limitations Many already over-worked business owners spend their valuable time trying to solve business issues themselves, and managed the books. This is obviously useful if it is cost effective to do so. A business owner certainly needs to be an expert on the fundamentals of their business.…