RBizz Corporate Accountants - Resources , News Alerts

Q3 Super & Easter/Anzac Hours

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:30:24 +1100

Q3 Super & Easter/Anzac Hours

April is a busy month with several public holidays and tax deadlines.

Office Hours: Our office will be closed for the Easter break (3–6 April) and Anzac Day (27 April observation).

Superannuation: Q3 Super payments are due by 28 April. Because of the holiday clusters, we strongly suggest processing these by 20 April to ensure they clear in time.

Quarterly BAS: Your March quarter BAS is also due on 28 April.

If you’re planning to be away over the school holidays, let’s get your numbers sorted early so you can enjoy your break without any compliance worries!

Could Junior Pay Rates Be Abolished?

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:42:20 +1100

Could Junior Pay Rates Be Abolished?

“It's about ensuring that anyone who's 18 years or older gets paid the adult rate of pay. They can drink, they can drive, they can vote — we as a community treat them as adults on every level, except when they walk in the door to work.”

Gerard Dwyer, National secretary for the SDA

The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA or ‘Shoppies’) most recent campaign focuses on the right for young Australian workers to be paid the same as their older colleagues.

Under the current wage rules for junior rates, workers under 21 years of age only get paid a percentage of the rate earned by older workers.

Workers under 20 are paid 90% of the adult award rate.
Workers who are 19 are paid 80% of the award rate.
Workers who are 18 get just 70% of the full award rates in retail, fast food and pharmacies.

There’s a growing weight of opinion from younger workers and their unions that people should earn the same wage, regardless of their age.

The Fair Work Commission held a hearing on the future of junior rates, but, at present, no decision has been handed down.

How could a change to junior rates affect your business?

If you employ a large number of younger workers under the age of 21, the abolishment of junior rates could have a significant impact on your payroll.

With the junior rates removed, all workers, regardless of their age, would be paid at the same standard rate. This would increase your payroll costs and impact your cashflow.

Talk to us about the impact of a change to junior wage rates

If you’re worried about the potential impact of the removal of junior rates, and the subsequent increase in wage costs, book some time for a chat with our team.

We can run scenarios to outline the potential costs and the overall impact on your cashflow.

The Right to Work From Home: What It Means for You

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 15:45:32 +1000

The Right to Work From Home: What It Means for You

Having the option to work from home (WFH), without the commute and the cost, has proved to be a very popular benefit for many time-strapped employees.

But until now, this ability to do your job from home has never been enshrined in law. This may be about to change, with Jacinta Allan’s Labor government proposing new legislation that would give employees the right to work from home two days per week.

This is great news for the flexible working arrangements of many hard-working Victorian workers. But what would this legislation mean for your business?

What does the proposed legislation suggest?

Under the legislation proposed by the Victorian State Government, the right to work from home would be made a legal right, available to employees that can work from home.

The Government proposes that:

All employees have the right to work from home at least two days per week
Employees would have this right if they can ‘reasonably do your job from home’
It would apply to both public sector and private sector workers.

What are the advantages of working from home?

The Allan Government believes there are plenty of advantages to encouraging the move to hybrid working, where workers work both from the workplace and their own home.

The Government’s recent media release states that:

WFH is a more flexible way to work. More than a third of Australian workers – including 60% of professionals – regularly work from home.
WFH saves families money. It saves Australians on average $110 a week or $5,308 every year, helping families make their dollars go further.
WFH cuts congestion. Victorians are now spending less time commuting, saving more than three hours in their week on average.
WFH gets more people working. Work from home supports women with children, carers and people with a disability to work.
WFH is good for business. Those who work from home work nearly 20% more hours than those who are working in the office full time.

Is WFH good or bad for your business?

Once the COVID pandemic was over, many businesses mandated a ‘return to work’ policy that was at odds with their employees’ desire to continue with hybrid working.

The worry among less enlightened business leaders was that your workforce needed to be in the office or place of work 5 days a week – and that this was the only practical way to manage a team and keep employees productive.

However, most research has shown that employees are happier, more motivated and more productive when allowed at least some time working from home.

80% of survey respondents in a recent survey by the Australian HR Institute expect that hybrid working levels will increase or stay the same in the coming two years.

Increasingly, employees feel that a hybrid mix of working from the office and from home is a standard expectation of their role – and one of their hard-won, work-related benefits. So, what can you do to get the best from hybrid working and WFH?

Here are five key ways to achieve WFH productivity:

Build a culture of trust and autonomy: Empower your employees by making it clear that you trust them to manage their own time and workload from home. Don’t micro manage your team. Instead, show respect that will boost their motivation and get good results.
Invest in the right technology and tools: Your team will need access to communication and collaboration tools like video conferencing, and messaging platforms like Teams and Slack. They’ll also need project management software to keep workflow organised and efficient.
Maintain strong, regular communication: Use scheduled check-ins and team-wide video calls to keep everyone aligned and engaged. This stops solo team members feeling isolated and helps to build and reinforce that feeling of being part of a wider team.
Promote a good work-life balance: Encourage all your employees to set boundaries between their work and home life. Respect their non-working hours and make sure everyone has time to rest and recharge, to prevent burnout and poor wellbeing issues.
Focus on outputs, not hours: Make sure you judge your employee’s performance on the quality and completion of their work, not on how many hours they’re visibly online. This really helps to reinforce trust and incentivise the whole team to be as productive as possible.

Whether you’re a fan or an opponent of hybrid working and WFH, the reality is that most employees will expect some kind of flexible working from their employer.

Book some time with our team to talk through more strategies for making WFH both a positive and a productive change for your business.

Interest rates come down: how could this affect your business finances?

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 15:45:12 +1000

Interest rates come down: how could this affect your business finances?

The Reserve Bank of Australia recently cut interest rates to 3.6%, down from 4.1%. This takes the cash rate to 3.6% for the first time since April 2023.

The final impact of this drop can be both positive and negative for your small business, so it’s worth understanding the effect that interest rate changes can have.

Let’s take a look at how a drop in interest rates may affect your finances

Reduced cost of borrowing

Lower interest rates on loans: This directly translates to lower interest payments on your existing loans and potentially more favourable interest rates on any new loans you take out.

Increased access to credit: With lower borrowing costs, you may find it easier to secure financing for expansion, investment in new equipment, or to overcome and present challenges.

Improved cashflow

Reduced debt service: Having lower interest payments frees up cashflow. This can be used to reinvest in the business, used for marketing, or distributed to shareholders.

Increased consumer spending: Lower interest rates help to stimulate consumer spending. This can mean increased demand for goods and services, higher sales and boosted revenues.

Better opportunities for investment

Lower cost of capital: With cheaper borrowing costs, you can invest in growth, including research and development, technology upgrades or hiring new staff.

Increased confidence: Lower interest rates can boost investor confidence. This makes it easier for you to find investors and raise capital through equity financing.

Economic growth

Stimulate the economy: Lower interest rates can boost economic growth by encouraging borrowing, investment and consumer spending. This creates a more favourable environment for your businesses to thrive in. A stronger economy = a more stable future.

Get the funding to secure your business future

Investing in the future of your business is a vital step. With interest rates currently lower, now’s the time to think about borrowing and putting your 2025 strategy into action.

Talk to our team about your growth plans and how these interest rate changes may impact your business. We’re here to help you reinvest, grow and keep on evolving.

Foreign resident CGT integrity changes - start date deferred

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 14:19:50 +1000

Foreign resident CGT integrity changes - start date deferred

As announced in the 2025 Federal Budget, the start date of the 2024 Budget measure to strengthen the foreign resident CGT regime will be deferred from 1 July 2025 to the later of 1 October 2025 or the first day of the quarter that starts after the amending legislation receives royal assent.

Treasury is currently consulting on reforms to strengthen the foreign resident CGT regime to ensure foreign residents pay their fair share of tax.

These reforms aim to provide certainty to foreign investors by aligning Australian tax law closely with the OECD standards and international best practice.

Types of assets

A foreign resident’s liability for CGT is based whether the relevant asset is taxable Australian property (TAP). As per s 855-15 the following assets are a TAP:

Taxable Australian real property
an indirect interest in Australian real property
a business asset of a permanent establishment in Australia
an option or right to acquire any of the CGT assets listed above
a CGT asset that is deemed to be Australian taxable property where a taxpayer on ceasing to be an Australian resident, makes an election under s 104-165.

The proposed measure will look to clarify and broaden the types of assets that the foreign residents are subject to, details of which should be released in the near future.

Principal asset test

The principal asset test determines whether the membership interest of a foreign resident in another entity (the test entity) is above 50% of the value of the test entity’s total assets attributable to Australian real property at the point-in-time when the CGT event occurs. Under the announced measures, this test will be changed to a 365-day testing period.

ATO to be notified of high value transactions

As per the Federal Budget announcement, foreign residents will be required to notify the ATO each time they dispose of shares and other membership interests exceeding $20 million in value, prior to the transaction being executed.

Foreign resident CGT withholding

A 12.5% non-final withholding tax obligation applies to the purchaser of certain Australian real property and related interests where the property is acquired from a foreign resident vendor. The CGT withholding is calculated on the first element of the cost base of the CGT asset, payable to the Commissioner at the time of acquisition (settlement).

Also announced in the Federal Budget, is a new ATO notification process which will oversee transactions that should be liable to the CGT withholding tax where a vendor self-assesses their sale as non-taxable real property. This will improve oversight and compliance with the foreign resident CGT withholding rules.

Next steps

The ATO will be scrutinising foreign residents who become liable to pay CGT as the information related to CGT events falling within the expanded definitions and stringent tests filters through to the ATO under various data matching and monitoring programs.

Please free to contact our office should you have any queries in relation to these announcements.

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Energy Bill Relief Fund: How do you claim relief?

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 16:21:52 +1000

Energy Bill Relief Fund: How do you claim relief?

Back in March 2025, the Albanese Government announced an extension to the Energy Bill Relief Fund for every Australian household, and around 1 million eligible small businesses.

This rebate on your energy costs takes effect from 1 July, with an $1.8 billion extension of the Energy Bill Relief Fund for the six months leading up to the end of 2025.

Let’s look at the size of the rebate and whether your business will be eligible.

How big will your energy rebate be?

The rebate will be up to $150 and will be payable to all Australian households and small businesses that meet the eligibility criteria.

Who is eligible for the rebate?

How can you claim your rebate?

Rebates will be automatically applied to your electricity bill in two $75 quarterly instalments. You shouldn’t need to take any action to make use of the rebate.

Talk to us about about managing your energy costs

With electricity and gas prices continuing to rise, the Energy Bill Relief Fund is a welcome boost for cash-strapped households and small businesses.

If you’re still concerned about rising costs and your ability to budget for these utility bills, do come and talk to the team. We can help you forecast your future costs and suggest ways to reduce your energy usage and streamline your overall cashflow burden.

You can find out more about eligibility for the small business energy relief here.

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Accepting cash may become mandatory for Aussie businesses

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 15:19:08 +1000

Accepting cash may become mandatory for Aussie businesses

Australia is fast heading towards becoming a cashless society. But there are still segments of society that rely on being able to pay in cash.

With this in mind, the Federal Government is proposing new legislation that would make it compulsory for Aussie businesses to accept cash for groceries, fuel and other essentials.

What’s the impact of this likely to be for your small business? Let’s take a look.

Giving consumers the option to pay with cash

Research from 2022 by the Reserve Bank of Australia shows that 76% of Aussies pay using cards, while 13% pay using cash. However, there are demographic groups, generally the elderly and those in low income brackets, that still prefer to pay using cash.

Reasons for this can range from security worries and a mistrust of online banking, to the relative ease of using cash as a payment method.

To protect the rights of consumers that prefer cash over cards and/or digital payments, the Federal Government hopes to introduce legislation over the next two years.

Here’s the lowdown:

At present, under existing law, businesses do NOT have to accept cash payments. It’s proposed that legislation will be introduced to make it mandatory for businesses to accept cash as payment for groceries, fuel and other essentials. Cheques are to be phased out altogether as a payment option by September 2029. A consultation process will take place in 2024/25 and legislation will be introduced from 2026. There may be an exemption for small businesses, with details on this to follow.

Talk to us about the impact of a move to cash

If you’re a consumer-facing business selling essential items, and currently only offering cashless payment options, this change in legislation could have a significant impact.

Having to accept cash will require you to have cash registers, cash floats and to bank the money at the end of each day – practicalities that cashless systems had done away with.

Talk to our team and we’ll be happy to run you through the implications.

Could the surcharge ban on card transactions help your business?

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 15:18:55 +1000

Could the surcharge ban on card transactions help your business?

Paying the required surcharges on debit card transactions made by your customers is an operational cost that many business owners would love to see disappear.

The good news for Australian businesses is that the Government is also keen to ditch debit card surcharges. In October 2024, plans were announced to ban debit card surcharging from 1 January 2026, subject to a consultation undertaken by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

The key aims are to lower costs for consumers, in an economy which is increasingly cashless, and to reduce the surcharge costs currently being experienced by smaller consumer-facing businesses that use EFTPOS to take debit card payments.

So, what are the pros and cons of this proposed surcharge ban?

1. Benefits of a ban on debit card surcharges:

Improved customer experience

A ban on surcharges may lead to a more positive customer experience, with your customers no longer being surprised by additional costs at the checkout. This could lead to a more transparent buying experience.

Simplified pricing

Without surcharges, you can present a simpler, more open pricing structure to your customers. If the price is $10, that’s what the customer pays. This reduces confusion and means that customers pay the price they were expecting.

Reduced administrative costs for you

With the debit surcharge removed, you no longer need to add that percentage charge to the customer, and pay it to your bank or service provider. In short, the expense of taking card payments will disappear.

2. Potential negatives of a ban on debit card surcharges:

Those plus points all sound highly engaging, and could help to simplify the buying process for both you, your staff and your customers. But there is a potential downside:

Who will absorb the administrative costs?

The Government’s plan is for both consumers and businesses to have that extra surcharge cost removed. But there is likely to still be an administrative cost to the bank and EFTPOS provider. This cost could be passed on to the business user in the form of other inflated bank charges.

So, will the surcharge cost simply be pushed back to the business owner? Or will the Government put measures in place to stop this? Treasurer, Jim Chalmers is quoted as saying:

“Consumers shouldn’t be punished for using cards or digital payments, and at the same time, small businesses shouldn’t have to pay hefty fees just to get paid themselves.

We’re prepared to ban debit card surcharges, subject to further work by the Reserve Bank and safeguards to ensure small businesses and consumers can both benefit from lower costs."

Further feedback from the RBA consultation and comment from the business community will be needed before this surcharge ban becomes effective in 2026.

Talk to us about the impact of a debit surcharge ban

If you’re currently paying surcharges on customer debit payments, and would like to know the potential impact of this proposed surcharge ban, please do contact us.

We can help you understand the benefits of the removed costs and what this might mean for your operating expenses, margins and overall profitability.

You can also comment on the RBA consultation. Stakeholders can provide written submissions by 3 December 2024.

Government to pay super on paid parental leave

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 16:55:21 +1000

Government to pay super on paid parental leave

From 1 July 2025, parents will receive 12% superannuation on government-funded paid parental leave (PPL) on top of the minimum weekly wage of $915.90 per week.If enacted, this measure will provide parents who access the PPL government scheme with super contributions paid into their nominated super account equivalent to 12% of their leave pay.

Current eligibility for PPL

Residency test

A person must meet the residency requirements from the day they become the child’s primary carer until the end of the PPL period.The parent must be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or an eligible temporary visa holder.

Work test

To meet the paid parental leave work test, an individual must have:

worked for at least 10 of the 13 months (295 days in a 392-day period) prior to the birth or adoption of the child
worked for at least 330 hours in the 10-month period (at least 7.6 hours a week on average), and
had no more than an 8-week gap between 2 consecutive working days.

Income test

Eligibility for the government scheme is limited by taxable income measured in the year prior to having the child. For the 2023–24 year, the income threshold is $175,788 or $364,350 for a 2-parent family.

In a 2-parent family, parents may share the current 22-week PPL between them (increasing progressively to 26 weeks from 1 July 2026).

Introduction of super payments by the government

From 1 July 2025, parents accessing the government scheme would also receive government-funded superannuation contributions into their nominated super account, at 12% of the leave pay.

The current minimum weekly wage of $915.90 per week.

Under the proposed legislation, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will make an annual payment of superannuation to the parent. Included in this payment will be a nominal interest amount to cover any forgone income not received as a result of an annual payment being made.

The ATO will make the payment in the same way they make a Government Co-Contribution payment.

Other matters

From 1 July 2024, 2 additional weeks of PPL will be added each year. Currently, parents may take up to 22 weeks PPL, which will increase each year until it reaches a total of 26 weeks by July 2026.

Also, each parent will be provided a reserved leave of 4 weeks from July 2026 intended to encourage shared care. The concurrent leave available from July 2026 means that both parents can take 4 weeks of PPL at the same time if they wish to do so.

Next steps

This measure will have implications for both employees and employers.

Employees

If enacted, the benefit a single parent may receive for 2 children would amount to $4,836 (based on the current 22-week PPL period). Compounded annually for an average of 30 years, this will result in a more than $20,000 increase in superannuation balances upon retirement.

Employers

This measure does not change how employer-run PPL programs are conducted. Although some employers choose to pay super, the introduction of this measure does not mandate employers to make superannuation contributions for any PPL they may pay to their employees.

Please feel free to contact our office if you have any queries in relation to this matter.

More tax relief for drinks companies: how will it improve your excise refund?

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 13:53:20 +1000

More tax relief for drinks companies: how will it improve your excise refund?

Increased tax relief for the excise remission cap and WET

At the moment, your brewing and distilling business can get a full refund of any excise paid up to $350,000 each year. The Government has announced that it will increase the excise remission cap to $400,000 for all eligible alcohol manufacturers.

The Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) producer rebate will also be extended from the current $350,000 producer rebate to $400,000.

These proposed changes to legislation will come into effect from 1 July 2026.

Making use of all available tax reliefs

As a drinks producer, your tax burden can be a major drain on cashflow and profits. This announcement of increased tax relief will bring down your tax costs, and should be seen as a spur to check whether you’re claiming all available allowances and reliefs.

Talk to our team about exploring all potential tax reliefs and government incentives, so you’re not spending a cent more in tax than you need to.