Tax Advice and Updates
Prevent a Cash Flow Crisis
Cash flow is basically the money that comes in and out of the business in the form of income and expenses. Using cash flow management and forecasting, you can help steady cash flow activity, allowing you to meet your commitments as they fall due and begin planning for spending money in the future on items such as property, plant, and equipment; you will then be able to see when money will be required for investing.
Reforms to Car Fringe Benefit Rules
There have been changes to the fringe benefit treatment of cars to remove the unintended incentive for people to drive their vehicle further than necessary in order to obtain a larger tax concession.
Did you know you can email pay slips and payment summaries to your employees?
In today’s environmentally friendly and tech savvy offices, many business owners have chosen to email pay slips and payment summaries to their employees. The option to move from printed copies to electronic copies is often overlooked. These emailed documents are essentially the same as printed pay slips and payment summaries, except for a few extra benefits:
Opportunity to purchase an investment property through your superannuation fund
With the volatility in the share market over the past three years, many people have decided to take control of their superannuation and invest their superannuation in an investment property as opposed to shares or managed funds.
Understanding your audit obligations
An audit is a review of the annual accounts and is usually carried out by an independent person or party, or a firm of accountants who are also accredited auditors. The most common types of audits are usually related to various taxes such as GST and Payroll but can also be for other business areas such as Workers Compensation or Occupational Health & Safety. Additionally, certain organisations are required to be audited annually such as charities, and solicitors, real estate agents and business brokers where they utilise a trust account.)
Did you know you can claim a 20% tax offset for medical expenses?
Net medical expenses are the medical expenses you have paid, minus any refunds of these expenses which you or any other person has received, or are entitled to receive, from Medicare and/or a private health insurer. Many taxpayers are unaware that you can claim a tax offset of 20% (that is, 20 cents in the dollar) of your net medical expenses over $2,000. There is no upper limit on the amount you can claim.
What you need to know about Reverse Mortgages and No Negative Equity Guarantees
A reverse mortgage is currently the most common equity release product in Australia for retirees. With a reverse mortgage, you use the equity in your home as security to borrow money. This has become an increasingly popular trend since the global financial crisis, as retirees seek to supplement their incomes due to a drop in returns from share investments. With reverse mortgages you can take the loan as a lump sum, in a regular income stream, as a line of credit, or as a combination of these options. The amount you can borrow is also linked to your age (that is, the older you are, the more you can borrow).
Changes to NSW retail leases legislation
The Retail Leases Act 1994, is the primary legislation which governs retail leasing in NSW. In January 2011 the NSW Government released a draft of the Retail Lease Amendment Bill 2011 in a bid to implement further amendments to the Act. It is highly important that all landlords and tenants of retail premises are aware of the impacts of these potential changes to the current retail leases legislation.
Have you considered managing your own superannuation?
Since the Global Financial crisis, many people are becoming more and more concerned with the performance of their superannuation fund. As a direct result of this concern many people are considering taking more control over the trusteeship and the management of their superannuation and establishing a Self Managed Superannuation Fund (SMSF.)
Changes to the Education Tax Refund
The Education Tax Refund (ETR) aims to help with the cost of educating primary and secondary school children. Eligible parents, carers, legal guardians and independent students are able to get money back on education expenses. The Government has recently changed the ETR to include school-approved uniforms, purchased from 1 July 2011; these items of clothing including hats, footwear and sports uniforms approved by a school as its uniform may be claimed from 1 July 2012.
