For property developers – or would-be property developers – a recent decision of the Federal Court may be of interest. In Makrylos v FCT [2023] FCA 971, land acquired by a property developer was treated as trading stock from the date of its original acquisition, and not a later date proposed by the taxpayer. This...

Soon to be implemented changes to the Australian Consumer Law will provide additional protection to consumers and small businesses prohibiting the proposal, use or reliance on unfair contract terms in standard form contracts. The ACCC recognises that “standard form contracts provide a cost-effective way for many businesses to contract with significant volumes of consumer or...

Most businesses are familiar with how GST works. But here’s a few reminders to make sure you’re being compliant and maximising your GST claims. GST is paid at each step in the supply chain and business charge GST in the price of goods, services or anything else they supply. If an entity is registered for...

SCENARIO: I run a small business that requires me to travel quite a lot, particularly to country areas where I will often stay overnight. To save on accommodation costs, I have purchased a caravan. I have a business logo on the side of the caravan that is on display when I attend town shows and...

The ATO has issued a reminder around trademarks! For background, a trademark legally protects your brand and helps customers distinguish your products or services in the market from others. Trademarks can be used to protect a logo, phrase, word, letter, colour, sound, smell, picture, movement, aspect of packaging or any combination of these. In short,...

R&D reminder The ATO has issued a reminder for companies wishing to claim a tax offset for their R&D (research and development) activities. The reminder was issued in the context of the ATO’s success in the Federal Court decision T.D.S. Biz Pty Ltd v FCT[1]. By way of background, the research and development tax incentive (R&DTI) helps companies...

Gifting to employees Some employers, especially at Christmas time or for birthdays, give small gifts to their employees or the employee’s associates  (i.e. spouses). These gifts typically take the form of bottles of wine, movie tickets, gift vouchers etc. The tax treatment of these gifts from an employer standpoint, depends upon a range of factors...

The recent ATO crackdown on trusts will no doubt have some business owners (and even some advisors) asking themselves the question: Is this structure for business purposes still worth it? To recap, trust distributions have been under the ATO microscope in recent years. The latest ATO crackdown was in February 2022 when it updated its...

The recently announced Small Business energy incentive is now open for business! The Energy Incentive will help up to 3.8 million small‑ and medium‑sized businesses save energy and save on their energy bills. The incentive is delivered by way of a bonus tax deduction which will provide businesses with annual turnover of less than $50 million an...

Since Budget night, the ATO has released more information around the small business lodgement amnesty…which can now be taken advantage of from 1 June 2023! The amnesty was announced in the recent Budget. It applies to tax obligations that were originally due between 1 December 2019 and 28 February 2022 and runs from 1 June 2023 to 31 December...