Happy New Year!

Happy new year, we hope that your year ended 30 June 2016 is a great one!

The year ended 30 June 2015 was a great one for us which included a number of challenges but was also very rewarding. The year ended 30 June 2016 is already shaping up to be an exciting year and we look forward to working with you.

What do you need to be aware of?

Being the first day of a new financial year there are a number of changes to be aware of. Some were legislated a while ago so may have slipped your memory but they are effective from today:

Car expenses:
The ‘cents per kilometre’ deduction calculation reduced to only 66c per kilometre so it makes even more sense now to go through the 3 month frustration of keeping a logbook to claim substantial tax benefits over many years.

Employee Share Schemes:
The tax impact on employee options can be deferred depending on certain conditions. This is a more generous concession by comparison to prior legislation but there is still much room for improvement in this space.

Start up costs:
Starting a business can be expensive. Traditionally these costs could only be claimed over 5 years but now the cost can be claimed in the first year which will assist new businesses that are profitable early in their business life cycle.

SuperStream:
Employers with less than 20 employees are required to use SuperStream from today however there is a 12 month period of flexibility.

Minimum Wage:
The minimum wage increases by 2.5%. Please ensure that your minimum wages are updated accordingly.

Company tax discount:
Company tax for groups with turnover of less than $2 million will decrease to 28.5%. This is a small reduction but ultimately it may make little difference as there will most likely be a greater ‘top up tax’ at the shareholder level unless shareholders are non residents.

Unincorporated small business tax discount:
Small unincorporated businesses will also receive a tax discount (5%) capped at $1,000.

Newsletter

This newsletter includes the following interesting articles:

– Importance of email etiquette
– Dealing with negative feedback online
– Top 5 habits of productive workers
– Acting on customer feedback
– Sensitivity as an office asset
– Co-operative competition
– Finding your ideal customer