The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had foreshadowed that it will make changes to its regulatory work and priorities to allow it to focus on the impact of COVID-19, stating that part of this effort will see it defer some activities and redeploy staff to address the issues of immediate concern, but at the...

Notice was posted recently in the Commonwealth Gazette (C2020G00570) of a data matching program that is to be launched between the ATO and Services Australia — the government body that became the executive agency in February this year in the Social Services portfolio (responsible for health, social and welfare payments and services). The notice of...

As a general rule, expenses relating to travel between home and work (and vice versa) are non-deductible. A numberof exceptions to this principle exist, including for situations that require bulky equipment be transported to and fromwork. In order for transport expenses to be deductible under this “bulky equipment” exception, it is usually necessarythat all of...

The JobKeeper payment, which was originally due to end after 27 September, will now continue to be available to eligible businesses (including the self-employed) until 28 March 2021. However there are some changes to consider. The JobKeeper payment rate of $1,500 per fortnight for eligible employees and business participants will be reduced to $1,200 from...

More support for taxpayers in the face of the COVID-19 health crisis has just been announced in the form of a suspension of the indexation of tax instalments for the 2020-21 income year. Both income tax (PAYG) and GST instalments are included, which the government says affects 2.2 million and 81,000 taxpayers respectively. Indexation, using...

Note that the boost to the instant asset write off rules that the government put in place to help stimulate the Australian economy in the face of the COVID-19 crisis has been extended to the end of this year. Businesses with a turnover of up to $500 million a year will be allowed to continue...

Think your business is too small or that your data and information isn’t important enough to be targeted by hackers? Think again. Much of our communication, be it personal or businesses-related, has increasingly moved online in the last two decades, and continues to do so, especially in these recent times of COVID-19 with nearly everyone...

Companies should note that the government made a determination just before the end of the financial year that permits companies to hold annual general meetings by electronic format. Also, companies may execute a document, without using a common seal, by electronic communication. The determination is to be repealed on 6 November 2020. Annual general meetings...

PAYG instalments is a system that helps you manage your expected tax liability on income from your business or investments for the current income year by making smaller regular payments. To assist taxpayers experiencing financial difficulty as a result of COVID-19, the ATO is providing added flexibility to manage your instalments to suit your circumstances....

The government’s National COVID-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC) has released an online planning tool to help businesses develop a plan to keep their workers, customers and the community safe as they reopen or increase their activities in the weeks and months ahead. The NCCC tool, in the form of a template called “My business’s COVIDSafe plan”,...