Just after Christmas, the State Government announced further health restrictions due the impact of the Omicron variant of Covid.  These rules were specifically introduced for businesses in tourism and hospitality and gyms, and focused mainly on density limits.

On 31 December, the State Government announced financial support packages targeted at businesses in the industries impacted by the restrictions.  They also announced a “business hardship grant” which is available to businesses who aren’t in tourism, hospitality, or a gym but have been significantly impacted by Covid restrictions. Further detail is provided below regarding these grants.

There are also many South Australians contracting Covid which means they may be eligible for the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment which is a Federal Government payment made available to people who are unable to work due to having the virus or having to care for someone with the virus.

There are a number of eligibility criteria for both the business and individual payments.

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If so, you need to apply for a Director Identification Number

The Government has recently passed legislation which requires a director of a company to have a “director identification number” (or Director ID).  This has been introduced to try and stop fraudulent behaviour by directors and in particular involvement in illegal phoenix activities.

This has been proposed for quite some time, with …

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From 1 November 2021, there is an extra step that employers may need to take to comply with choice of fund rules for new employees.

If new employees don’t choose a superannuation fund, you may need to request their ‘stapled super fund’ details from the ATO – A stapled super fund is an existing super account which is linked, or ‘stapled’, to an individual employee so that it follows them as they change jobs.

The intention of the change is to reduce account fees by preventing new superannuation accounts from being opened every time an employee starts a new job.

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The 7-day statewide snap lockdown, which started at 6pm on Tuesday, has many businesses and employees wondering what support might be available to them to compensate for lost income. Thankfully there are some income supports available for individuals and businesses.

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A large part of the COVID stimulus packages announced by the Government last year was intended to encourage businesses to invest in capital assets.  They did this by announcing the “temporary full expensing of depreciating assets” provisions on 6 October 2020 for businesses with aggregated turnover of less than $5 billion.  Prior to this, the instant asset write-off threshold had been increased to $150,000 for businesses with aggregated turnover of less than $50 million.

These changes have resulted in many businesses investing in assets throughout this financial year with the view to claiming a full tax deduction for the asset.  Alternatively, businesses may still be considering purchasing an asset prior to 30 June 2021 in order to claim the tax deduction.  There are some tricks and opportunities to these depreciable asset write off provisions that you should be aware of.

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