The Government has welcomed the actions of an ATO-led taskforce in relation to what is termed “the biggest GST fraud in Australia’s history”. The ATO states that the fraud was first detected in early 2022 and involved offenders inventing fake businesses and ABN applications, then submitting fictitious Business Activity Statements in an attempt to gain a false GST refund....

ASIC has released fresh and timely information around crypto scams. Scammers use cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin or ether, because they are not easily recovered. Crypto can be sent overseas quickly with limited oversight. If you lose your money to a crypto scam, your money is likely gone. If you buy crypto, only invest what you can...

Individuals with large superannuation balances may soon be subject to an extra 15% tax on earnings if their balance exceeds $3m at the end of a financial year. What has been proposed? Recently, the government announced it will introduce an additional tax of 15% on earnings for individuals whose total superannuation balance (TSB) exceeds $3m...

With car fringe benefits one of the most common benefits provided by employers to employees, a new ATO fact sheet shines more light on the FBT exemption for electric vehicles. To recap, in the October 2022 Federal Budget, the government announced that it would exempt from FBT the private use, or availability for use, of...

Already rolling into March…2023 is flying by! From a superannuation standpoint, following are just some of the changes you can expect this year: Super guarantee increase Employers face an increase to their SG liability this year. The rate of SG will increase from 10.5% to 11% from 1 July 2023, before gradually hitting 12% on...

In February, the Commissioner released Taxpayer Alert TA 2023/1: Interposition of a holding company to access company profits tax-free. In the Alert, the Commissioner says the ATO is currently reviewing arrangements where an individual accesses the profits of a private company in a tax-free form (that is, without an additional tax liability for the individual)...

The ATO is encouraging accountants to educate clients around varying PAYG instalments – this can potentially assist cashflow. To recap, PAYG (pay-as-you-go) instalments allow business taxpayers to make regular prepayments towards the tax on their business and investment income. This is in contrast to salary and wage earners who already make prepayments by having tax...

It’s been a particularly difficult 12 months for investors. On the superannuation front, we now have two major reports assessing how super accounts fared in the  2022 calendar year. Super­Ratings issued its average balanced return recently and found it was minus 4.8%. Late last year, ChantWest undertook a similar exercise – reporting a figure of...

On 20 February 2023, Treasury released a consultation paper on legislating the purpose of superannuation. This is an idea that has been around since 2016 when the former Coalition government contemplated doing the same thing. The government says that legislating an objective of superannuation will provide stability and confidence to policy makers, regulators, industry, and...

With the end of the FBT year approaching, are your car logbooks in order? The operating cost method is used by many employers to calculate their car FBT liability. This method is particularly effective where the business use of the vehicle is high. Keeping a logbook is essential to use the operating cost method. Employees...