As we approach the end of the financial year it’s a good time to start thinking about what you could do to minimise your tax liability.
Federal Budget 2023-24
Was there anything in the budget for small business?
As expected, there was not a lot in the Budget for small business – it was focussed predominantly on providing assistance for households, welfare recipients and low-income earners in managing the cost of living crisis. You may have noticed there has been much discussion is around whether the measures announced will add to inflationary pressure and it seems that there is no agreement amongst the experts as to whether it will be stimulatory or not. This will be know in the coming months.
Proposed Extra Tax for $3M Super Balances
As you may be aware, the Treasurer announced last week a proposed tax change to superannuation.
Who is impacted?
- The measure only affects individuals who have more than $3M in super at the end of a financial year and is not due to start until 1 July 2025, therefore it is the balance in super on 30 June 2026 that matters initially.
- The $3M is per person, not per fund and it includes all of an individual’s superannuation, including both their pension and accumulation accounts and super held in all funds (SMSF, APRA etc).
- The $3M won’t be indexed and therefore won’t increase with inflation each year.
Year End/New Year Bookkeeping Tips
As always there are a lot of things to consider for the end of financial year and starting a new financial year so we have put together some tips below to help.
Single Touch Payroll – Phase 2
We are aware the ATO has sent correspondence to businesses to remind them they will need to start reporting additional payroll information as part of their STP Phase 2.
STP2 started on 1 January 2022 however MYOB, Xero and other software providers were not able to update their systems in time so applied for a deferral with the ATO.
MYOB and Xero both have a deferral until 31 December 2022 which means businesses using these software’s have until this date to opt into STP2. If you are using another software for your STP reporting then we recommend checking when they will be STP2 ready.