Australia’s leading startup training provider, Startup Onramp, has announced the launch of their new Founders Course, a fully online training and mentoring program designed to help new and aspiring founders get their startup launched and maximise its chances of success.   If you’ve been working on a startup idea for a while but are struggling to know what to do next, the Founders Course will teach you how to emulate…  Read more

Our Facebook page is always up to date as we eagerly await any updates to support small businesses, just like you. However, it takes several days from the announcement for the details to be worked out (by the ATO/ Government) and for any new measures to be legislated. We prefer waiting until these are certain to advise our clients as lot of them are not open to interpretation. However, the…  Read more

Bootstrapping is figuring out how to reduce the cash you need to start, by eliminating any unnecessary overheads while finding out who will give you a hand.   If for whatever reason you’re not able to raise enough capital to start-up you might be able to get what you need by ‘bootstrapping’ (finding what you need through unconventional or low-cost methods). Have others lend what you need You don’t have…  Read more

This is a recording of a webinar we have run for not only our clients but any business owners to let them know what help is available to them from the government stimulus package as well as what steps to take/ things to consider during these tough times.   Webinar Recording – Things you can do right now to protect your business     Make sure to connect with us…  Read more

The Government is enhancing the Boosting Cash Flow for Employers measure it announced on 12 March 2020. The Government is providing up to $100,000 to eligible small and medium-sized businesses, and not for-profits (NFPs) that employ people, with a minimum payment of $20,000. These payments will help businesses and NFPs with their cash flow so they can keep operating, pay their rent, electricity and other bills and retain staff. Note that you…  Read more

The Government is supporting small business to retain their apprentices and trainees. Eligible employers can apply for a wage subsidy of 50 per cent of the apprentice’s or trainee’s wage for 9 months from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2020. Where a small business is not able to retain an apprentice, the subsidy will be available to a new employer that employs that apprentice. Employers will be reimbursed up…  Read more

The New South Wales measures to support businesses include the following:   Business support and jobs $450 million for the waiver of payroll tax for businesses with payrolls of up to $10 million for three months (the rest of 2019-20). This means these businesses will save a quarter of their annual payroll tax bill in 2019-20 $56 million to bring forward the next round of payroll tax cuts by raising…  Read more

Victoria seems to have been the fastest acting state, also one that sends regular and meaningful updates. Their $1.7 billion measures include the following: Payroll Tax Refund Businesses with annual taxable wages up to $3 million will have their payroll tax for the 2019-20 financial year waived. This will support 24,000 businesses and up to 400,000 workers. The State Revenue Office will directly contact eligible businesses to reimburse them for…  Read more

For small and medium businesses and large businesses specifically impacted by COVID-19, QLD Government will refund two months’ worth of payroll tax. Additionally, they’re giving small and medium businesses a three-month payroll tax holiday, and a further six-month payroll tax deferral for any of these Queensland businesses. (Could it get more complicated than this??) “Combined with the payroll tax deferrals we’ve already announced, it means no Queensland business impacted by…  Read more

  On the 13th March 2020, Practice Ignition named Petra King one of the Top 50 Women in Accounting.   This global award recognizes women who are leading the charge when it comes to advocacy, change and community within the Accounting and Bookkeeping industry. “We received such a large and diverse range of entries from women in, and around the accounting industry, it was amazing to see.” says Guy Pearson,…  Read more

In an indication of the far-reaching changes that Single Touch Payroll (‘STP’) will be bringing, Treasury has recently finished consulting on draft legislation that expands the data that may be collected through STP by the ATO (as announced in the 2019/20 Budget). The legislation, if enacted, will broaden the amounts that employers can voluntarily report under the STP rules, to include employer withholding of child support deductions from salary or…  Read more

The Government has announced its economic response to the Coronavirus in the form of a $17.6 billion economic stimulus package. The package has been marketed as a measure to protect the economy by maintaining confidence, supporting investment and keeping people in their jobs. Whether it will be enough, only time will tell. We have already seen the impact the panic has had on the businesses, especially in travel and hospitality…  Read more

If you have been looking after your own BAS lodgments, and use ATO Business portal logging in with AUSKey, you will need to make some changes. AUSKey is being replaced by MyGovID at the end of March 2020. How exactly is MyGovID replacing AUSkey?   MyGovID and Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM), provide a quick, easy and secure way for you to prove who you are when you access selected government…  Read more

Following the enactment of legislation in late 2019, the ATO can disclose certain business tax debt (ATO debt) information to external credit reporting bureaus. This information will primarily be used when issuing external creditworthiness reports in relation to relevant businesses, effectively treating tax debts in a similar manner to other business debts. The purpose of allowing the ATO to report ATO debt is to: encourage businesses to engage with the…  Read more

Did you come back to work and realised you have issues with Xero payroll? Well, there’s nothing wrong with the actual Xero payroll, but the ATO rules around salary sacrifice and superannuation have changed from 1 January 2020. Legislation changes from 1 January 2020 and how will Xero payroll cope From 1 January 2020, salary sacrificed super contributions can’t be used to reduce your super guarantee obligations, regardless of the amount…  Read more

The Government will introduce new laws to stop corporate misuse of the Australian Government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) scheme. The FEG scheme is an avenue of last resort that assists employees when their employer’s business fails and the employer has not made adequate provision for employee entitlements, but it is clear that some company directors are misusing the FEG scheme to meet liabilities that can and should be paid directly…  Read more