Few issues have raised more ire in the wine industry than the Wine Federation of Australia’s (WFA) proposal to reform the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) or presented accountants and solicitors with greater challenges in advising clients about its future implications. Read More
A Dun & Bradstreet Expectations Survey concludes a rise in current low business optimism will depend to a large extent on policies of the newly elected Coalition Government. The survey shows only 5% of Australian businesses were optimistic about growth in this year’s final quarter. Least optimistic were those in the service and wholesale sectors where growth expectation was down to 2%. This was in a situation where businesses generally were “sitting tight” at the end of the third quarter, waiting to see what the Government would or wouldn’t do and where expectations for sales, employment and investments had reached their lowest levels in three years. Read More
Analysts’ talk of Australia’s wine exports to China being likely to increase by 50% in the next three years is of course a headline grabber. But tending to be drowned out by all the hubbub about the potential of Asian markets, are the voices of researchers who claim the US wine trade is newly keen to explore the regionality, diversity and premium value of Australia’s wine. Read More
Any time after 9 October 2013 many company directors may get nasty surprises in the mail which could be nobody’s fault but their own. Read More
As expected, directors’ penalties are extended to unpaid superannuation guarantee and unpaid PAYG. No longer can directors avoid penalties by placing companies into administration or liquidation when PAYG or superannuation guarantees remain unpaid and unreported after a due date. Read More
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) will henceforth function more openly and with greater transparency to the benefit of small business. Such is the undertaking given by newly appointed ATO Commissioner Chris Jordan to a recent so-called SME Summit. He said that as a result of ongoing reviews of interaction between the tax office and owners of SMEs, it was planned to consolidate “a huge amount of correspondence” by putting masses of information – including requirements – online. Read More
