I’ve been so caught up in the end of financial year that I haven’t written a “Frivolous Friday” post for ages…so to take a break from business and tax for a while – here we go!

Many of you will know that I set myself a challenge to complete 5km a day, every day, for the month of June – and I am pleased to report that I was 100% successful!

Along the way I managed to raise $708.50 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association of Victoria (MND), which is significantly higher than my initial goal of $500!

I remember visiting the MND offices in the early 1980’s when my Dad was first diagnosed with MND – at the time, they provided support and counselling services as well as loans of equipment which was necessary to help Dad with everyday tasks.

I am truly humbled that many of you saw the worth in this challenge…and I would like to thank everyone who has supported this campaign – your donations, encouragement and company along the way really mean the world to me!

PS The fundraising page will be open for a few more weeks, feel free to pop over and make a donation, just click here.

PPS Don’t forget to check out the other events being held to raise funds for MND, just click here.

Regards

Family businesses are everywhere – it is an extremely common scenario for me to come across in small business, where the business is operated by two or more members of the same family.

While this can have many benefits, both financially and personally, it is also important to establish some ground rules or guidelines to avoid potential conflicts.

The Australian Small Business Commissioner provides the following tips for those operating a family business:

1. Leave work at work and home at home.

2. Have clearly assigned roles for each family member to avoid feelings of being taken for granted, over-worked or under-utilised.

3. Pay the market rate – remunerate the job and not the person.

4. Develop a strong, capable management structure – don’t confuse ownership or inheritance with management.

5. Have clear, consistent communication – both good and bad news must be shared.

6. Clearly define entry and exit criteria for family members before an event occurs.

7. Develop a succession plan and ensure that it is endorsed by interested parties – a communicated process rather than sudden event.

8. Use outside advisers who can provide unbiased, objective advice.

9. Hold regular communication sessions and family ‘retreats’ – the best results are those facilitated by a `third party’.

10. Use external advisers, sounding board, mentors and family business forum groups.

There’s certainly some great advice there…if you think your family business might benefit from a planning session with an external advisor, please contact The Tax Chic to discuss your options.

Regards

It has started…the mad rush that is “tax season”!

All around the country, individual taxpayers are hastily gathering their group certificates so they can get their tax done – now I’m all for getting in early, but may I offer a few notes that might help with the process?

Firstly – like all businesses, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) must process their year end accounting…and in the case of the ATO, this also includes testing the new tax return lodgement software.  As such, the ATO will not accept lodgement of income tax returns until after Tuesday 7th July, 2015 and they won’t be processing any refunds until after Tuesday 14th July, 2015 – so your patience is required for the next couple of weeks.

Secondly, at this early stage of the new financial year there is little to no information available to me on the ATO internal website regarding your dealings for the year – this means it’s up to you to provide ALL of your information!  Common items that appear on the ATO reports at a later date, and often forgotten about by taxpayers include Centrelink, interest, dividends and private health insurance details…if you’re not prepared to gather all of these details, you might need to wait a couple of weeks until they are available to me…

Finally, if you aren’t confident completing your tax return yourself, simply Contact The Tax Chic for assistance.

Regards

It makes perfect sense that if you are paid monthly you receive 12 pays per year, if you are paid fortnightly you receive 26 pays per year and if you are paid weekly you receive 52 pays per year…but every now and then this isn’t quite correct!

Of course the number of monthly pays received will never change…but depending on the day your pay period ends, and the day payment of those wages are made – in some years you may receive 27 fortnightly payments or 53 weekly payments…

But what does this mean for you?

Essentially it means that if you do not adjust the amount of Pay As You Go Withholding (PAYGW) from your wages, you might end up having to pay some tax at the end of the year – and I’m yet to meet anyone who likes doing that!

The reason for this is that the PAYGW tables issued by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and used by all employers, are based on 26 fortnights or 52 weeks…these tables are not updated for this calendar anomaly because the impact will never be the same for everyone…as I said, it depends on the day your pay period ends, and the day payment of those wages are made.

To work out if this applies to you, I ask you this question – did you receive a wages payment on Wednesday 1st July, 2015 or Thursday 2nd July, 2015?  If you answered yes, then this applies to you!

BUT – you have to ask your employer to withhold extra PAYGW, to find out how much, take a look at the ATO website.

Employers – it might be a good idea to send your employees a link to this post so they can make a decision for themselves…

Regards