small business

By Keerti Sharma* Proposals to make company directors personally liable for GST go beyond the aim of combating illegal phoenixing, and instead put SMEs with legitimate trading difficulties at risk. Treasury Laws Amendment (Combating Illegal Phoenixing) Bill 2019 proposes making directors personally liable for unpaid GST if the unpaid liability is not paid within 21

Tax & Super Australia (TSA) says the ATO should strongly consider exempting micro employers from having to use single touch payroll (STP) after a survey of its members that found that STP has been costly, time-consuming and overly onerous for their smaller business and micro employer clients. Further, many members were unconvinced about the long-term

The ATO has issued a reminder that the single touch payroll (STP) mandatory adoption deadline is imminent. While the initial deadline was 1 July 2019, the ATO provided a three month transition period for employers that needed more time. This 30 September deadline has now passed. While the number of employers reporting through STP tripled

Treasury has just released some miscellaneous amendments that include a redefinition of the word “taxi” in regard to certain tax arrangements. An exposure draft addresses the ongoing problem for taxpayers around the definition of taxi for FBT purposes (see the second link on this Treasury webpage, “Miscellaneous Amendments Bill Explanatory Memorandum”, and scroll to page

The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has issued information for tax agents that change practice structures. In most cases, the TPB will require notification of these changes within 30 days. Note however that there may also be a need to apply for registration for the new business structure, which includes getting a new registration number to operate

The threshold rule allows a business to claim an immediate deduction for most business expenditure of $100 or less to buy tangible assets. The rule is meant to help your small business clients save time because they don’t need to decide whether each purchase is of a revenue nature (immediately deductible) or of a capital

Success can depend on how your client structures their business efforts

The strengthening of the director penalty regime has been reported here before — for instance, having director penalty notices (DPNs) extended to superannuation guarantee obligations from 1 March 2019. Now it looks like DPNs for GST are set to take affect from 1 October 2019 on the back of recent legislation, Treasury Laws Amendment (Combating

The ATO knows that many business owners naturally help themselves to their trading stock and use it for their own purposes. This common practice can occur in businesses such as butchers, bakers, corner stores, cafes, wine shops and more. The ATO regularly issues guidance for business owners on the value it expects will be allocated

Your small business clients can use simpler trading stock rules. If your client operates a small business entity and at the end of the income year estimates that their trading stock’s value has not changed by more than $5,000, it may pay to remind them (especially if they are new to business) that they can