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E-bikes – the next salary packaging craze?

Australia offering fast tracked permanent residency for global talent

It’s official – Australia is actively seeking the best and brightest talent from around the world and will bend the visa rules when they find it!

Victorian state budget 2020-2021

NSW Budget 2020-21

The NSW Budget released on 17 November 2020 offers further necessary tax relief and incentives particularly for small business employers, commercial landlords and retail tenants. Perhaps more significantly, it heralds significant state tax reform which may be a template for similar reforms in other states and territories.

Reshaping businesses in the time of Covid

If you own, run or manage a business then uncertainty is part of your daily life. It is an inescapable reality that can throw strategies off course and stunt progress. But uncertainty can also be a catalyst for change. When ‘business as usual’ is no longer possible, it creates a moment for leadership to pause and consider what the business does next.

Working from home – is it the new normal?- Guidance for employers

Covid 19 has much to answer for including for many people changing the look of their workplaces in the short or long term. Many Australian’s found themselves forced to work from home. For many employers and employees this was not a change that they had anticipated nor one for which any forward planning had occurred. Many employers and employees, prior to coronavirus would have denied that their work could be successfully undertaken other than in the traditional workplace.

ATO review of high wealth tax payers begins

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is renewing their focus on privately owned and wealthy groups under their four year Next 5,000 tax performance program with the recent commencement of new reviews under this program. One of the areas of interest for the ATO under the review is formal tax governance, which is not common for private groups. We encourage all wealthy private groups to understand what this new approach means and to be prepared for a review on these matters.

Agribusiness Digital Solutions Grants Program

The Palaszczuk government in conjunction with the Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries have assigned up to $1.2million to industry organisations to develop, trial and promote digital solutions in agriculture and food supply chains.

Transfer Duty exemption for Queensland small business restructures

Queensland small business owners can restructure their businesses without incurring transfer duty under an administrative arrangement applying from 7 September 2020. Whether the owner’s objective is asset protection, tax planning or a more suitable operating structure, the new arrangements remove a long-standing hindrance to optimal business management and growth.

JobKeeper Update: 7 Alternative Test Categories Announced

On Wednesday 23 September 2020 the ATO registered the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Alternative Decline in Turnover Test Rules (No 2) 2020. These Rules set out the alternative tests that can be used to determine if the decline in turnover test is satisfied for the purposes of JobKeeper payments from 28 September 2020.