Lockdown Support For Victorians

This blog will focus on the Superannuation Guarantee Obligations - something every employer should understand.

Well what an ever-changing time we live in. Regulations, laws, business lives and stimulus packages all changing daily that complicate and confuse information in relation to the impact of Coronavirus (COVID19)

The Federal Budget - budget or election promise?

It's never too late to start a good record keeping system for your business. It's an important part of being a small business owner, keeping good records of your transactions and tax invoices will help you monitor the performance of your business as well as comply with your tax obligations.

As part of good business management and governance it is important to plan and minimise, where possible, taxation liabilities. The compliance requirements of quarterly BAS preparation means that business owners are usually in a position to look at actual figures for 9 months and then make predictions for the remaining section of the financial period. The estimates can be based on historical data or could be based on what the business owners anticipates will happen. That is for both income and expenses. Armed with all this information, tax liabilities are able to be calculated for the individuals or the business depending on where the taxing point is. After the tax liabilities have been calculated, it is necessary to examine potential strategies to minimise this tax liability. Deferring income to a later year or accelerating planned expenditure, assist in reducing your current year's tax. However, it is important that a tax minimisation strategy is examined with the overall tax savings and also the cash available. For example When considering putting money into a FMD with borrowed money you need to look at the best usage of your money: Overdraft interest rate 8% FMD Interest Rate 2% Primary Production Average Tax Rate 12% Under these circumstances there is no advantage in tying money up in an FMD for 12 months to save 12 cents in the dollar tax and only receive 2% on the money that is invested. Likewise to put money into superannuation in these circumstances would also not be a wise use of money unless you are closer to retirement. Any superannuation contribution that you claim as a tax deduction attracts 15 cents contributions tax. As you can see tax planning is not just spending all the available funds that you have, rather it is looking critically at you position and then planning a strategy which utilises available resources in the best possible way and to limit cents in the $ tax obligations. If you would like to know more information in relation to your current position and potential strategies, call us today on 55 851 522 or call into one of our offices.

IMPORTANT CHANGES TO SMALL BUSINESS SUPER CLEARING HOUSE If you currently use the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) to lodge your employee's superannuation guarantee amounts please note they will join ATO online services on 26 February 2018 and will no longer be accessible with the current user ID and password authentication after 19th February 2018. To enable the ATO to effectively transfer your data across to the new system payments via BPAY or EFT must be completed prior to 3pm AEDT on 19 February 2018. You can still review and update other information within the system. If you pay employer superannuation contributions monthly, we suggest you complete your payments prior to this time. There will be no access to the SBSCH from Tuesday 20 February to Sunday 25 February inclusive. As a result of integrating with online services, the new SBSCH will have functionality including the ability to sort employee listings and payment by credit card. If West Currie Consultants currently lodge superannuation on your behalf, we will continue to manage your super obligations through our online channel. However, if you lodge your own super online via SBSCH you can contact us at West Currie Consultants for assistance in the transition or alternatively you can go to www.ato.gov.au  and search SBSCH joining ATO for all your transition information.

It's simply using the internet to access software, data and storage. Cloud accounting uses the internet, via a web browser, as the means of accessing the accounting software. Accounting packages can be purely internet based like Xero, or the software is able to be accessed in the cloud and at a desktop level, like Reckon and MYOB Account Right. Cloud-based accounting software does rely on good home or business internet connection speeds and unfortunately using a satellite internet connection doesn't quite "cut the mustard", constant improvements are being made to improve the internet access and reliability daily.