Newsletter Features
Getting Ready for Growth
Many businesses do not plan for growth, but just take challenges as they come. Without planning, your business may encounter difficulties or lose sight of its goals. Growth can come from a range of sources including a widened product range, an expanded capacity to serve more customers, or entering new markets. Each source of growth comes with different benefits as well as different time and monetary costs.
Governing your Business
Governance focuses on the policies and mechanisms set in place to administer and direct your business. Although many believe that corporate governance is something reserved only for large corporations, this is not true. In fact, good governance is vital to the growth and success of any business regardless of size or industry.
Succession Planning
As the old adage states, “fail to plan and you plan to fail”. While this may seem a little worn out, it is still very relevant and true, particularly when it comes to business. Most businesses are the result of many years of hard work and dedication. However, owners often fail to consider what may happen if they are suddenly unable to turn up to work, or if they haven’t adequately planned for their retirement. Though it is not necessarily a pleasant thing to think about, much like making or updating a Will, the last thing you want is for those years of hard work to all come to a grinding halt because you did not consider and implement a business succession plan.
Trust Resettlement
If you are thinking about implementing modifications to your existing trust, it is important to consider whether such changes could result in the requirement for resettlement of the trust. When a resettlement happens the original trust is said to have come to an end, and is replaced by the new trust. This means the original trust is deemed to have sold all of the assets to the new trust for their market value on the day of resettlement. As a result, the resettlement of a trust may also carry various tax implications for the trustee including capital gains tax, an inability to recoup tax loss (revenue or capital) or stamp duty.
FREE Tax Record Kit
With a multitude of perplexing figures and overwhelming paper work, it is understandable that tax time can become very confusing for tax payers. Generally speaking, anyone who earns over the tax free threshold during the course of a financial year (1 July – 30 June) is required to submit an individual tax return to the Australian Tax Office.
Preparing for the End of Financial Year
With the end of the financial year approaching, now is a prime time to start preparing for your business tax return. Planning for the end of financial year is usually commenced in March as it gives you time to organise yourself and create appropriate tax plans to implement before you have to lodge your returns.
Planning for Property Investment
Owning an investment property can be a rewarding experience, both financially and emotionally. There are many considerations other than the purchase cost of the property that need to be taken on board beforehand. Apart from the type of property (such as a unit or house), the location, your financial goals and the intended time period for keeping the property; you also need to consider the following issues:
Impacts of New Consumer Laws
On 1 January 2011 the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) commenced. It aims to benefit consumers by giving them the same rights and protections wherever they are in Australia. Basically the ACL has simplified the old laws and made them easier to understand and to enforce. This law benefits you as a consumer in the following ways:
Colour Your Brand
Intellectual property (IP) represents the property of your mind or intellect. It can be an invention, trade mark, logo, original design or the practical application of a good idea. In business terms, this means your proprietary knowledge - a key component of success in business today. IP is often what helps consumers to recognise your business; recently some businesses have even gone so far as to successfully trademark certain colours as their own intellectual property for a particular product category.
Are You Liable For Fringe Benefits Tax?
A fringe benefit is any benefit you provide to an employee, or to the associate of an employee (such as their spouse or children) in addition to their salary or wages. Some of these items could include.
