$20,000 instant asset write-off june 2018.pdf · – $20,000 low interest loans the nsw government...

1Cootamundra | Young | Harden | Cowra

$20,000 INSTANT ASSET WRITE-OFFThe instant asset write-off threshold of $20,000 has been extended to 30 June 2019.Until 30 June 2019, the business portion of assets that cost less than $20,000, can be immediately claimed as a tax deduction for businesses with a turnover less than $10 million. Assets that cost $20,000 or more can’t be immediately deducted, but are deducted over time using the general small business pool.

SINGLE TOUCH PAYROLLSingle Touch Payroll will be mandatory for employers with 20 or more employees (substantial employer) from 1 July 2018 and for ALL employers from 1 July 2019. Single Touch Payroll requires employers to report salary or wages, PAYG withholding and superannuation information directly to the ATO each payday.

Employers who report through Single Touch Payroll will not be required to provide employees with Payment Summaries at the end of the year. Employees will be able to view their year-to-date income, tax and superannuation information through myGov.

Employee numbers are determined based on payroll on 1 April 2018 and include full-time employees, part-time employees, casual employees who worked any time during March 2018, employees who are on leave (paid or unpaid) and seasonal employees. Employee numbers are based on head count and not on full-time equivalents. Employers who are located in a rural area with no reliable internet connection or who are substantial employers for only a short period of the year (eg due to shearing or harvesting activities) may apply for an exemption from Single Touch Payroll reporting.

For more information go to: www.ato.gov.au/business/Single-Touch-Payroll/.

NEWSLETTER | MARCH 2013NEWSLETTER | JUNE 2018

MINIMISE YOUR TAX IN 2018You have until 30 June 2018 to book an appointment with your Accountant to review your 2018 profit, to estimate your tax payable and to put in place tax minimization strategies. The last thing we want for you is a nasty surprise when we prepare your 2018 income tax returns. Having an estimate of your tax liability enables you to plan ahead and be in control of your cash flow.


TAX DEDUCTION NOW AVAILABLE FOR SUPERANNUATION CONTRIBUTIONS BY EMPLOYEESFrom the 1st of July 2017, for the first time, employees are eligible to claim a tax deduction for personal contributions made to superannuation. Until this year only self-employed people were eligible to claim this type of deduction.To be eligible to make the claim employees must be under 65 or under 75 and still working and contributions must be received by the superannuation provider prior to the 30th of June 2018. Employees must inform their superannuation fund of their intention to claim the deduction prior to lodging their 2018 personal income tax return.

The concessional contribution cap for the 2018 financial year is $25,000. This means that the total of all superannuation guarantee contributions made by a person’s employer, plus their salary sacrifice superannuation contributions, plus their personal contributions to superannuation that they are claiming a tax deduction for, must not total more than $25,000.

12 MONTH AMNESTY FOR UNDERPAYMENT OF SUPERANNUATION GUARANTEEA one-off, 12-month amnesty period for historical underpayment of the superannuation guarantee has been announced by the government, foreshadowing tougher penalties once the Single Touch Payroll regime kicks in fully next year.The amnesty will set aside employer penalties for late payment that are normally paid to the government, with employers needing to pay all super that is owed to their employees, including the rate of nominal interest.

Subject to the passage of legislation, the amnesty will run from 24 May 2018 to 23 May 2019 and will allow:

• catch-up payments to be tax-deductible

• the penalties that normally apply to late payments to be waived

• the administration component of the SG charge to be waived.

The amnesty does not apply to Superannuation Guarantee payments due after 1 April 2018.

DOWNSIZING CONTRIBUTIONS INTO SUPERANNUATIONFrom 1 July 2018, if you are 65 years old or older and meet the eligibility requirements, you may be able to choose to make a downsizer contribution into your superannuation of up to $300,000 from the proceeds of selling your home.Your downsizer contribution is not a non-concessional contribution and will not count towards your contributions caps. The downsizer contribution can still be made if an individual has a total super balance greater than $1.6 million.

You can only make downsizing contributions for the sale of one home. You can’t access it again for the sale of a second home. You or your spouse must have owned the home for 10 years or more prior to the sale.

Downsizer contributions are not tax deductible and will be taken into account for determining eligibility for the age pension.

If you sell your home, are eligible and choose to make a downsizer contribution, there is no requirement for you to purchase another home.

NEWSLETTER | JUNE 2018HAVE YOU VISITED OUR WEBSITE? www.twomeys.com.au



PURCHASERS OF NEW RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY NOW REQUIRED TO WITHHOLD GSTFrom 1 July 2018, purchasers of new residential premises or subdivision of potential residential land will be required to withhold an amount from the contract price, and pay that amount to the ATO on or before settlement.The amount a purchaser must withhold and remit to the ATO is:• 1/11th of the contract price (for fully taxable supplies)• 7% of the contract price (for margin scheme supplies)• 10% of GST exclusive market value of the supply (for

supplies between associates for a price less than GST inclusive market value).

A supplier must provide a notice in writing to the purchaser before selling any residential premises or potential residential land stating whether the purchaser needs to withhold or not. The supplier’s notice may either be in the contract for sale, or in a separate document. A failure by the supplier to provide the notice doesn’t affect the purchaser’s obligation to withhold an amount if the property is a taxable sale of new residential premises or potential residential land.

The amendment is aimed as property developers who fail to remit GST to the ATO despite claiming input tax credits. However it will require all mum and dad buyers who are not carrying on a business and who have no knowledge of the GST system to withhold and remit GST.

Purchasers or their representatives must lodge two online forms to advise the ATO of their purchase:

• The GST property settlement withholding notification form is used to advise the ATO that a contract has been entered into for new residential premises or potential residential land that requires a withholding amount. This form can be submitted any time after a contract has been entered into and prior to the settlement date.

• The GST property settlement date confirmation form is used to confirm the settlement date and can be submitted at the time of settlement and when the payment has been made to the ATO.

Further information is available at https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/GST/In-detail/Your-industry/Property/GST-property-settlement-online-forms-and-instructions/.

NSW DROUGHT TRANSPORT FUND – $20,000 LOW INTEREST LOANSThe NSW Government has announced a new Drought Transport Fund that will provide up to $20,000 in low interest loans, with a two-year interest and repayment free period. The loans, available through the Rural Assistance Authority are intended to help with the cost of transport for water, feed and livestock. The loan term is 7 years. While available to offset the cost of transport, farmers are required to have a pre-approved loan before organising transport.

The Drought Transport Further information and application forms can be found at www.raa.nsw.gov.au/assistance/drought-transport-fund.

NEW HECS-HELP REPAYMENT THRESHOLDS FROM 1 JULY 2018The HECS-HELP repayment thresholds have been reduced substantially from 1 July 2018, with people now required to start repaying their HECS-HELP debts once their repayment income reaches $45,000 (previously this limit was $55,874).

The new repayment income thresholds range from 1% for people with repayment incomes between $45,000 - $51,956, up to 10% for people with incomes over $131,989.



NEW CHAIN OF RESPONSIBILITY (COR) OBLIGATIONS FOR THE TRANSPORT INDUSTRYFrom mid-2018, the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) will require that every party in the heavy vehicle transport supply chain does all that is reasonably practicable to eliminate or minimise potential harm or risk.If you consign, pack, load or receive goods as part of your business, you could be held legally liable for breaches of the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) even though you have no direct role in driving or operating a heavy vehicle. This includes farmers who contract a heavy vehicle operator to collect or receive produce or livestock to their farms.

CoR could apply when:

• heavy vehicle driver breaches fatigue management requirements or speed limits

• heavy vehicle driver breaches mass, dimension, or loading requirements

• where any instructions, actions or demands to parties in the supply chain causes or contributes to an offence under the HVNL. That includes anything done, or not done (directly or indirectly) that has an impact on compliance, for example:

> schedulers whose business practices place unrealistic timeframes on drivers which cause them to exceed their work rest options

> loading managers whose business practices, including loading/unloading times, cause the driver to exceed the speed limit.

Parties in the chain must also make sure the terms of consignment or work/employment contracts will not result in, encourage, reward or provide an incentive for the driver or other party in the supply chain (e.g. a scheduler) to break the HVNL.

Further information is available at www.nhvr.gov.au/safety-accreditation-compliance/chain-of-responsibility/about.

DO YOU NEED TO REGISTER YOUR BUSINESS NAME WITH ASIC?The Australian Business Register (ABR) is phasing out Trading Names and from November 2018, the ABR will only list Business Names that are registered with ASIC. If you conduct business under a name other than your own, you need to register a Business Name. You don’t need to register a business name if you trade under your own name (eg John Smith), but you’ll need to have a business name if it’s anything else (eg John Smith Plumbing).

You cannot apply for a business name that is identical to one already on the register. Before you apply, you can check the Business Name availability on the ASIC website. The fees for registering a business name are $35 for one year and $82 for three years.

Further information is available at https://asic.gov.au/for-business/registering-a-business-name/.

CHANGES TO YOUTH ALLOW-ANCE FOR STUDENTS FROM RURAL AND REMOTE AREAS

Changes to Youth Allowance for students from rural and remote areas came into effect on 1 January 2018. Previously students had to work for 18 months before they could be considered independent. Students from a rural and remote area now only have to work for 14 months since leaving school and earn 75% of wage level A (75% is $24,836) to be classified as independent. Parental income must be less than $150,000.

NB: Students not from rural or remote areas or students whose parental income exceeds $150,000 still need to work full-time (average 30 hours per week) for at least 18 months within a 2 year period to be considered independent.



TWOMEYS CLIENT PORTALDid you know that Twomeys have a secure Client Document Portal accessed via our website.?You can now login to your own personalised secure area to access your documents, files, income tax returns and financial reports (uploaded on your request). You can also use the portal to send us data files or other documents to assist us with, for example, the preparation of your Financial Statements and income tax returns. The portal also enables us to send you documents for electronic signing.

Registration for the Client Document Portal is not automatic and you need to request access. If you are interested, please go to our website and request access at www.twomeys.com.au/client_tools/client_portal.

AUDIT SHIELDThe recent Federal budget allocated an additional $130.8 million in funding for ATO to increase compliance activities targeting individual taxpayers and their tax agents. Twomeys is pleased to be able to offer our clients Audit Shield insurance which covers professional fees (up to prescribed limits) in the event that you receive one of the following audits: income tax, record keeping, capital gains, fringe benefits, workers compensation, payroll tax, GST/BAS, SMSF and employer obligations.

If you would like to participate in the Audit Shield service, please contact your local Twomeys office.

Key dates16 July 2018 – PAYG Withholding Payment Summaries for employees issued

23 July 2018 – Monthly Business Activity Statement for period 1 June 2018 – 30 June 2018 lodged and paid

30 July 2018 – Superannuation Guarantee for period 1 April 2018 -30 June 2018 lodged and paid

30 July 2018 – Quarterly Business Activity Statement for period 1 April 2018 -30 June 2018 lodged and paid

30 July 2018 – Quarterly PAYG Instalment for period 1 April 2018 – 30 June 2018 lodged and paid

1 August 2018 – Fuel Tax Credit rates change

14 August 2018 – PAYG Withholding Annual Report lodged

28 August 2018 – Taxable Payments Annual Report lodged

Cootamundra | Young | Harden | Cowra

TWOMEYS COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENTMatilda Bucknell (Accountant – Cootamundra office) participated in the March Charge raising funds for cancer research. Matilda ran 86km during the month of March and raised a total of $1,265 including a donation of $500 from the Count Charitable Foundation.

TWOMEYS NEWSCongratulations to Sarah Mackie (Undergraduate Accountant – Young office) who was recently awarded the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand Prize in First Year Accounting at Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga campus.


^Services provided as an Authorised Representative of Count. Twomeys ABN 62 128 381 868 is a Member of Count Financial Limited (AR 324761). ‘Count’ and Count Wealth Accountants® are trading names of Count Financial Limited ABN 19 001 974 625 Australian Financial Services Licence Holder Number 227232 a wholly-owned, non-guaranteed subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank of Australia ABN 48 123 123 124. Count is a Professional Partner of the Financial Planning Association of Australia Limited. Count advisers are authorised representatives of Count. www.count.com.au

For further information or advice, please contact your nearest Twomeys office.

Cootamundra .................................................. 02 6942 0300

Young .................................................................. 02 6381 4200

Cowra ................................................................. 02 6342 3728

Harden ............................................................... 02 6386 2485

Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. Please note that any taxation and accounting services are not endorsed nor the responsibility of Count Financial Limited. The articles contained in this newsletter are intended for information only and not for advice.

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$20,000 instant asset write-off june 2018.pdf · – $20,000 low interest loans the nsw government...

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