RBizz Corporate Accountants - Resources #Government Updates

Your 101 guide to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 18:32:52 +1100

Your 101 guide to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

Whatever kind of business you own and run, your operations will have some form of environmental and social impact on the land and communities around you. Being a good business owner means being aware of this impact and putting structures in place to minimise the negative outcomes. This is where Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies become a vital part of your business plan.

What are Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reviews?

ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. ESG gives you a framework to manage the risks and opportunities related to your sustainability and ethical practices as a business. This framework helps you reduce your negative environmental impacts, strive for more sustainable processes and take an ethical approach to running the business.

Let’s break down each of the three areas:

E (Environmental): Environmental reviews focus on your company's impact on the planet. This will include analysing your energy use, waste management, pollution levels, conservation of natural resources and your overall carbon emissions as a business.

S (Social): Social reviews look at the human impact of your business, including how you manage relationships with your employees, suppliers, customers and the wider communities where your business operates. This includes analysing areas in the business such as workplace rights, diversity and inclusion, human rights and consumer protection.

G (Governance): Governance reviews take a microscope to how you run and manage the business. This can include assessing your leadership of the business, the internal controls you have in place, how you manage executive pay and the rights of your shareholders. In a nutshell, governance is about how you lead the company, how transparent you are and whether business decisions are made in a fair, open and ethical way.

Why should your small business be concerned about ESG?

ESG isn't just a checklist that only applies to large, corporate organisations. ESG is just as relevant for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), giving you a powerful tool to refine and expand your business growth, risk management, cost reduction and company values.

Here’s a breakdown of where ESG could be helping you run a better business:

You may not be planning to sell today, but things can change quickly. Maybe a new opportunity arises, or you simply want to retire early. With an exit plan in place, you’ll be ready to act on your own terms.

Having flexibility means you can decide when and how to transition — instead of being forced into a rushed or stressful decision.

Attracting and keeping talent and people

You can prioritise the social pillar by offering fair wages, good working conditions and career opportunities to your employees. This makes you more attractive as an employer and improves the happiness, motivation and satisfaction levels of your workforce.

It’s also beneficial to have a diverse workplace, with more voices and cultural viewpoints helping you to reduce any cultural bias and make more-informed business decisions.

2. Improving your customer loyalty

Increasingly, consumers and business clients prefer to buy from businesses that align with their own values, especially around sustainability concerns. Failing to meet your customers’ environmental and social expectations can lead to a drop in sales, revenue and overall customer loyalty.

To boost this loyalty, it’s important to be transparent about your environmental and social practices, and to do everything you can to be a leader in these spaces.

3. Driving cost savings

Looking for ways to cut your energy usage isn’t just good for the planet. It also helps you cut your spending on energy bills and put more money back into growing the business.

Applying the ESG framework to your operational activity helps you optimise your energy usage, reduce waste and shift your focus to more local suppliers. This can directly lower your operating expenses, helping you stretch your working capital and improve your cash positionAccessing capital, funding and investment

Large investors, financial institutions and business lenders are increasingly including ESG factors in their funding decisions and outlook on potential investments.

Having strong ESG practices in place makes your business a more attractive proposition to investors and lenders, making it easier to access the funding you need to expand. A robust ESG strategy reduces risk levels and opens the right finance channels when you need them.

4. Keeping your supply chain sustainable

ESG doesn’t stop with evaluating your own results as a business. It’s also vital to understand the ESG credentials of your suppliers and how they measure up against your own values.

The last thing you want as a brand is to be linked to ethical or environmental violations. Be sure to carry out ESG reviews of all existing and potential suppliers in your supply chain, and work only with those that meet the required values and levels of transparency.

5. Managing your regulatory and reputational risk

Good governance isn’t a ‘nice to have’. It’s a vital part of running a business that sticks to its values and meets all of the required regulatory and compliance rules.

This means being an ethical boss who leads from the front, as well as being transparent about your financial management, supply chain management and environmental impacts. It’s also key to managing your reputational risk, preventing legal issues and safeguarding your brand.

Helping you review and enhance your ESG strategy

Environmental, social and governance concerns are a fundamental part of managing your business. And, as with most areas of running a business, it’s important to have a workable strategy and clear advice around how to maximise your ESG tactics.

Book some time with our team to talk through your current awareness of ESG and how we can help you create and refine a workable ESG strategy.

ASIC’s 2025–26 Focus: Revenue, Valuations & Provisions

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 20:40:04 +1100

ASIC’s 2025–26 Focus: Revenue, Valuations & Provisions

When it comes to financial reporting, the most complex areas are often the most scrutinised. For the 2025–26 financial year, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced its surveillance priorities: revenue recognition, asset valuations, and provisions.

Revenue recognition has long been a challenge, especially with complex contracts and performance obligations. Misclassification or overstatement of income remains a high-risk issue. Asset valuations, particularly for goodwill, property, and financial instruments, will also face tighter reviews. With economic uncertainty, interest rate movements, and shifting market conditions, management assumptions must be tested more thoroughly. Provisions—such as those for litigation, restructuring, or warranties—are another focus, given their reliance on forward-looking judgments.

For businesses, this means disclosures must be transparent and specific. Boilerplate language will not satisfy regulators. Auditors will be expected to challenge management assumptions rigorously and ensure working papers are well documented. Failure to meet these expectations could result in enforcement actions, reputational harm, or even penalties.

The takeaway for business leaders is clear: engage with auditors early, ensure assumptions are reasonable, and prepare detailed documentation to support financial reporting.

Talk to RBizz Corporate Accountants about strengthening your reporting processes for ASIC’s 2025–26 priorities.

ATO Tightens Rules on GIC Remissions

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 21:18:02 +1000

ATO Tightens Rules on GIC Remissions

For years, many Australian businesses have relied on the ATO’s leniency in remitting the General Interest Charge (GIC)—the daily interest that accrues on unpaid tax debts. During COVID, in particular, the tax office often approved remission requests to ease financial pressures. But that period of flexibility is closing.

The ATO has confirmed that fewer remission requests will be approved in 2025, especially when late payments or defaults look deliberate or repeated. Businesses that fail to engage with the ATO early, or don’t provide sufficient documentation of hardship, may find their requests declined.

What’s changing?

Stricter criteria: GIC will be remitted only where genuine hardship or unavoidable circumstances exist.
Consistency push: ATO staff are being retrained to apply guidelines uniformly across all cases.
Documentation required: Businesses must now provide detailed records showing why they were unable to pay on time.

Why it matters
Ignoring tax debts can quickly become costly. The GIC compounds daily, meaning even a short delay can grow into a significant burden. With tighter remission approvals, businesses must be proactive: engage with the ATO, request payment plans, and keep accurate records of cash flow constraints.

Top Tip: Treat GIC remissions as an exception, not an expectation. Plan cash flow so your business avoids falling behind in the first place.

Speak to RBizz Corporate Accountants today—we’ll help you manage tax debt, negotiate with the ATO, and keep your business compliant.

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.

Increased amendment period for small and medium businesses

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 16:54:36 +1000

Increased amendment period for small and medium businesses

The ATO has extended the amendment period for income tax returns from 2 years to 4 years for small and medium businesses. The period commences from the day on which the Commissioner gives notice of the assessment to the taxpayer. The extended period is applicable for assessments in relation to income years starting on or after 1 July 2024.

The previous 2-year period was considered too short, as outside of this window you would otherwise have to engage in costly and lengthy objections and appeals processes with the Commissioner.

Your application for an amendment must be in the approved form and given to the Commissioner before the expiry of the 4-year period.

These amendments intend to reduce some administrative and financial burden for small and medium business entities and avoid some instances of pursuing objections and appeals.

Small and medium business entities

You are a small or medium business entity for an income year if you:

carry on a business during the income year, and

one or both of the following applies:
the aggregated turnover of your business in the previous income year was less than $50 million, and/or
your business's aggregated turnover for the current year is likely to be less than $50 million.

What doesn't change

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) may continue to decline amendment requests where they believe that the requested amendment would result in the assessment not correctly reflecting your taxable income.

Also note that there is no change to the length of time you are required to keep records for your business. You need to keep records for your business in case the ATO wants to audit your tax return. Generally, records are required to be maintained for 5 years from the date on which the record was prepared or obtained, or from the time the relevant transaction or act was completed, whichever is the later.

For instances such as fraud and tax evasion, the amendment period does not apply and the Commissioner may amend your return at any time.

Please do not hesitate to contact our office should you have any queries.

Payroll tax updates for medical practices

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 22:58:23 +1000

Payroll tax updates for medical practices

Revenue authorities in Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and NSW issued harmonised rulings that may subject many medical practices to payroll tax on practitioner payments.

The rulings implied that payroll tax is likely to apply to payments made by medical practices to medical practitioners under the relevant contracts (new and existing) payroll tax provisions.

The rulings provided clarity on the harmonised official position of revenue authorities across various jurisdictions and that payroll is not just payable on employees but may also be payable on contractor doctors.

RELEVANT CONTRACTS

The rulings expanded the meaning of a relevant contract to include all agreements that can be characterised as a contract for the performance of work. Previously, generally only payments that were directly referable to services rendered were treated as being subject to payroll tax.

The rulings have determined that if a medical centre engages a practitioner to practice from its premises, or if it provides patients with access to the medical services of a practitioner, a relevant contract likely exists.

EXCLUSIONS

Certain exclusions may still apply:

the practitioner providing services to the public generally (e.g. if the practitioner provides services to more than one medical practice)
the practitioner performing work for no more than 90 days in a financial year
services performed by two or more persons (e.g., a practitioner personally providing a nurse or assistant).

STATE BASED CONCESSIONS

Certain concessions have been announced/offered in ACT, SA, QLD and NSW which we briefly outlined below:

Please note, the amnesties in QLD and SA are not automatically available, only the medical practices that successfully submitted expressions of interest before cut-off date (submissions now closed) will have the amnesty period for which the payroll tax will not apply to payments made to contracted GPs.

Northern Territory and Tasmania have not yet issued a revenue ruling on this matter, and any amnesty arrangements are also unclear. With respect to Western Australia, the payroll tax legislation does not contain relevant contract provisions, therefore these arrangements may not be subject to the same scrutiny.

NEXT STEPS

Developments in payroll tax in recent years have made it clear that contracts with contractor doctors may be deemed a relevant contract under legislation, and money paid to the contracted doctor may qualify as wages for the purpose of payroll tax.

Contact us and we can assist you in reviewing your current arrangements, any potential payroll tax liabilities and suggest changes if required.

Underpaying your staff is now a criminal offence: what this means for your business

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 13:54:22 +1000

Underpaying your staff is now a criminal offense: what this means for your business

Paying your employees the correct amount is an important part of being an employer. To tighten up this process, the Australian Government has just introduced a new Voluntary Small Business Wage Compliance Code, that makes underpaying your employees a criminal offence.

So, what counts as an underpayment? And are there any exemptions to the new Code?

WHAT IS THE VOLUNTARY SMALL BUSINESS WAGE COMPLIANCE CODE?

UNDERPAYMENT MAY INCLUDE

ARE THERE ANY EXCEPTIONS?

There are some exemptions to the new Code. In some limited circumstances, the criminal offence won’t apply to particular entitlements.

THE EXCEPTIONS BROADLY APPLY TO:

Employees in New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria who are employed by sole traders, partnerships, other unincorporated entities, or non-trading corporations.Most Victorian state government employees.Tasmanian local government employees.

GET UP TO SPEED WITH THE CODE AND WAGES COMPLIANCE

You can get a full breakdown of the new Code, and your wages compliance responsibilities as an employer in the new Guide To Paying Employees Correctly.

If you’re concerned about meeting this new compliance checklist, or how it will affect your day-to-day payroll activities, please do get in touch with the team.