The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2016-17 (MYEFO) announced that from 1 July 2017, the ATO will disclose tax debt information of businesses who have not effectively engaged with the ATO to credit reporting bureaus. The new measure is aimed at enhancing the integrity of the tax system and ensuring businesses who are not compliant…
With the fringe benefits tax (FBT) year ending 31 March 2017, now is the time for business owners to get their FBT affairs sorted. When calculating FBT liability, employers must gross-up the taxable value of benefits provided to reflect the gross salary employees would need to earn at the highest marginal tax rate (including Medicare…
Many small food retailers buy and sell products that are both taxable and GST-free. Depending on the point-of-sale equipment used, identifying and recording these sales can be difficult for business owners. The ATO has introduced a series of simplified accounting methods (SAMs) to make it easier to account for GST and work out the amount…
From 1 July 2017, many of the 2016 Federal Budget super reforms will take place, including the reduction of both the annual concessional and non-concessional contribution caps. Concessional contributions Concessional contributions include employer contributions and salary sacrifice amounts. Personal contributions claimed as a personal super contribution deduction also count as concessional contributions. The concessional (pre-tax)…
The ATO has provided business owners with further guidance on the deductibility of website costs in a recent Taxation Ruling. The Tax Office considers a commercial website as a website which is used in the course of a business, irrespective of whether it is used directly to produce income. This does not include software provided…
The Federal Court has recently agreed that ride-sourcing is taxi travel. For GST purposes, the word taxi means a car (vehicle) made available for public hire that is used to transport passengers for fares. State and territory laws regulating transportation of passengers contain specific definitions of the term taxi. A vehicle can be considered a…
Fuel tax credit rates increased on 1 February 2017. These rates are indexed twice a year, in February and August, in line with the consumer price index (CPI). The rates vary depending on when you acquire the fuel, what fuel you use and the activity you use it for. Rates may also change for fuel…
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has issued a ruling that clarifies the circumstances in which a deduction for bad debts is allowable. To obtain a bad debt deduction under section 63 of the Act, a debt must exist before it can be written off as bad. A debt exists for the purposes of section 63…
