Rising prices have been a hot conversation topic both in the news and within our day-to-day lives. The cost of living squeeze is impacting us all—individuals and businesses alike.
Australia’s labour and skills crisis is worsening, with businesses struggling to fill nearly half a million jobs amid a mismatch between people’s expertise and the work available across the nation. There were a record 480,100 job vacancies in May–more than double the number at the start of the pandemic and up 14% from the previous three months.
Beware of tax scams as we head into the new financial year. Tax fraud and scams happen year round, but with tax on people’s minds, they can often be more susceptible to falling for scams at this time of year.
Whilst we still continue to aid business owners when their business experiences a crisis, we can never seem to stress enough the importance of looking at your risks and impact of such risks early (before these impact on your personal life). Preparation in business is as necessary as it would be for a holiday (business plan – check, low debtor days – check), imagine packing your bags just hours before taking a flight – you wouldn’t! So when it comes to your business, why wouldn’t you allow some time to plan for a possible crisis?
On 13 July 2022, the ATO issued its final position on the Division 7A consequences on unpaid present entitlements (UPEs) to corporate beneficiaries. This final tax determination was initially released in draft in February of this year and remains largely unchanged.
For most people, interest rates can be confusing. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is tasked with the responsibility of setting interest rates. It does this at monthly board meetings by determining the cash rate. The cash rate is the price the big retail banks pay to borrow money in the overnight cash markets.
Super funds have seen a significant downturn in the last month, with the worst negative returns since the Global Financial Crisis.
With the cost of living rising and prices increasing in every sector, we have been receiving questions from several of our clients about how best to combat inflation.