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Informal Wills: Worth the Risk?

A will, in essence, is a document detailing how you would like your estate (assets and liabilities) handled after you pass away. It is often considered quite important to have one; particularly if you have specific intentions of who and where you wish to transfer your...

Payroll Data in a Single Touch

On 1 July last year, the Single Touch Payroll (STP) system was introduced for employers with less than 20 staff. This was to allow employers to report payroll data to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). While a three-month transition period allowed these small...

Liquidation: Employee Entitlements Clarified

A recent case of the High Court has clarified a key principle of the Corporations Act. Carter Holt Harvey Woodproducts Australia Pty Ltd v The Commonwealth [2019] HCA 20, otherwise referenced as the Amerind case, raises implications that Australian employees’...

Be Aware: Contract Terms in the Sale of your Business

A business can be sold for the purposes of enterprise or equity. Typically, a greater risk equates itself with equity sales as opposed to enterprise sales. The reason is that acquiring the shares enhances the likelihood of contingent claims. These claims, notably...

Illegal Phoenixing: Where to report it

In October last year, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Combating Illegal Phoenixing) Act 2019 came into effect to target illegal phoenixing.  Its’ rationale was to reduce ‘phoenix activity’, (where a deliberately liquidated company creates a new company in order to...

Increase to Defined Size of Large Proprietary Companies

The recent Corporations Amendment (Proprietary Company Thresholds) Regulations 2019 increased the thresholds for determining whether a company is a large or small proprietary company for a financial year.  This is an important alteration to the previous regulations,...

What is Restraint of Trade in an Employment Contract?

A restraint of trade in an employment contract refers to a clause applying typically when an employee leaves a business or company; it applies to post-employment.  Essentially, it is an agreement that an employee will not do certain things against their employers’...

ATO Empowered to Disclose Business Tax Debts

In late October last year, a law was ratified to allow the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to disclose the tax debt information of businesses to registered credit reporting bureaus (CRBs).  Notably, the legislation enables the ATO to only divulge tax debt information...