Apprentices and trainees, ongoing government data-matching. Apprentices and trainees. Businesses with an apprentice or trainee beware. The Department of Education, Skills and Employment has commenced a new ongoing data-matching program in relation to the Supporting Apprentices and Trainees (SAT) measure.

Reduce car FBT liability with one simple change to operating cost method. Among the many unintended consequences of COVID-19, businesses that provide cars to their employees may now be on the hook for more FBT.

Changing business structure, some sectors of the economy are suffering, others are booming, if you’re lucky enough to have a small business in a rapidly growing sector, you may be considering a change from a relatively simple sole trader business structure to a more formal structure such as a company or a trust.

TPAR includes more businesses this year. With the ultimate distraction of the pandemic, many businesses around Australia may not be aware that they will be required to lodge a Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR) for the first time this year.

small business super clearing house.Running a small business is already stressful enough in this economic climate without needing to worry about compliance of super guarantee payments and whether they have been properly made.

ATO will be expanding the work of the Tax Avoidance Taskforce with a new program focusing on high wealth private groups. That segment encompasses approximately 9,000 individuals and 18,000 companies, the ATO will work on closing the tax gap: targeting high wealth private groups.

If your business is in relatively good shape and have been contemplating an asset purchase, now is the time. Not only will you be helping the Australian economy get back on its feet, you’ll be doing your business a favour by taking advantage of the instant asset write-off threshold of $150,000.

Government contracts require Statement of Tax Record (STR). Businesses wanting to participate in the Federal Government’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery projects need to be aware that they may need to obtain a statement of tax record (STR) from the ATO prior to the commencement of any tender process.

Illegal-pheonixing, Governnment introduces measures to combat illegal-phoenixing. New laws are now in place to target illegal-phoenixing of companies which by some estimates costs businesses, employees and governments more than $2bn a year. At its core, illegal phoenixing is the use of serial deliberate insolvency as a business model to avoid paying company debts.

Car parking fringe benefits scruitiny by ATO, are you complying? Do you provide car parking to your employees on your business premises? If the parking meets certain conditions you may have to pay fringe benefits tax (FBT) on those and other benefits you provide to your employees.

Tax avoidance taskforce expands to top 500 private groups, high wealth private groups, and medium and emerging private groups. Perhaps the most interesting is the inclusion of medium and emerging private groups which cover around 97% of the total private group population.

Tax debts able to be disclosed by ATO to credit agencies. ATO is now able to disclose your tax debts to credit agencies. Businesses with tax debts beware, the ATO will now be able to disclose the details of your tax debts to credit ratings agencies, which could potentially affect the ability of the business to obtain finance or refinance existing debt.

Debt forgiveness due to love and affection only for natural persons. The rules around Div 7A deemed dividends are complex and may have become more so with the release of a draft taxation determination from the ATO in relation to debts forgiven.

Non commercial loss rules could apply for business and job, this may prevent you from deducting your business losses against your other income.

Small business CGT concessions, when do I qualify? The small business CGT concessions are a great tool for business owners to transfer wealth into super. Here, we break down the two essential requirements you must first meet in order to access any of the concessions.