Latest News - June 2013

2013 Budget Overview
Treasurer Wayne Swan has handed down the 2013/14 Federal Budget and forecasts a budget deficit of $18 billion. This is in stark contrast to his $1.5 billion surplus that he predicted in the previous budget. Mr Swan blamed the high Australian dollar, lower commodity prices and the fact that the mining tax revenue will be less than 10% of the original forecast. READ MORE...

Personal Taxation
Click HERE to read more information on Personal Taxation including the Individual Tax Rates and changes to the Baby Bonus, Medicare Levy and Self Education Expenses.

• 2013 Individual Tax Return Checklist
  

Business Taxation
Read MORE about Business Taxation changes including the increase in ASIC fees and the
requirement for large entities to make monthly PAYG instalments in the PAYG instalment system.

• 2013 Companies, Partnerships, Trusts & Other Business Tax Checklist
  

Superannuation
The Budget contained little new superannuation news, instead re-stating measures already announced by the Government on 5 April 2013. Click HERE to read more.

Tax Compliance
In this section we cover Data Matching & Third Party Information, Dividend Washing and the setup of an ATO taskforce to target the use of Trust structures by wealthy individuals. Click HERE to read more.

Family Business Or Family Feud
Family conflict is nothing new to business. Legendary comedian W.C. Fields is credited with the line, “Never work with children or animals.” While a lot of people in television agree with him, in business there is an argument to say that you should never work with family! Click HERE to read some guidelines you may consider putting in place when employing family members.

Facebook For Business
A Facebook Page for your business can be a powerful tool to grow awareness and build a fan/customer base. Unfortunately, like most marketing, it’s not as easy as logging in one night, creating a page and instant success. Before you create a Facebook Page for your business, click HERE to read about the planning required.

$17 Billion 'Lost' - Is Some of it Yours?
The Government announced last year that that after 31st May 2013, ‘inactive’ bank accounts would be transferred to ASIC. The threshold for ‘inactive’ has been lowered from seven years to three years. Although this money will be recoverable, the process may take many weeks if not months. Click HERE to find out how you can search for lost bank accounts, shares, life insurance and superannuation.

ATO Data Matching Update
Data-matching or comparing the same piece of information from two different sources has expanded rapidly in recent years. Four years ago, the ATO matched 50 million transactions and this year it will match 500 million. Most business owners are aware of the Tax Office’s data-matching activities but technology is revolutionising the ATO’s compliance capabilities. Click HERE to find out more.