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Employers with 19 or fewer employees are temporarily exempt from reporting ‘closely held (related) payees’ through Single Touch Payroll enabled software. The exemption deadline has been extended from 1 July 2020 to 1 July 2021 as part of the ATO’s response to the COVID-19 situation. A closely held payee is an individual directly related to the business, company or trust that pays them. Commonly, these are: Family relatives of a family business. Directors or shareholders if a company. Beneficiaries of a trust. The closely held payees exemption is automatically applied, and employers do not need to report them to the ATO. Employers still have the option to report their closely held payees’ payroll information through Single Touch Payroll if they wish to. This can be done each time a payment is made, following the same process that applies for regular..

Improving your SEO ranking is an important step to developing your business’ digital presence and increasing web traffic onto your website and social media pages. SEO refers to search engine optimisation and improving it allows your business to top search results as the first link to come up, thereby ensuring credibility and attracting more relevant clients. To reliably improve your SEO ranking, here are a few key steps. Optimise for mobileNowadays, clients are browsing the web from their phones so it is important to make sure all your web content is mobile friendly. Mobile optimisation also encourages search engines to link your websites first. To make mobile-friendly web content, consider: Minimising loading time for mobile users (usually with slower connection than desktop) – search engines as big as Google are planning on using page speed as a mobile search ranking…

Small business owners are often faced with stressful financial decisions and periods of uncertainty. Having a cash flow forecast can help your business avoid cash shortages by allowing you to track whether your spending is on target, prepare for business expansion, plan for upcoming cash gaps and plan budgets. Here are some tips on cash flow forecasting to help your business be in control of its finances. Prepare a sales forecastExisting businesses can look at past years’ sales figures, taking note of busy and quiet periods, and prepare an income prediction based on historical trends. If you’re a new business, you can start by making cash outflow estimates. This can help you plan for what sales you should aim for to cover this and make estimates of predicted sales. Knowing how much money you’ll have in a week or a..

Small businesses coming out of COVID-19 may be looking to expand and grow as quickly as possible to prepare for a changing economy. One of the ways you can effectively grow your business is by improving your hiring strategy and making sure it is efficient. Analyse and catalogue your needsTo make sure your hiring process is fit for your business, spend some time analysing your needs. For example, consider how quickly you are looking to expand, how many employees you are looking to and capable of hiring, the space you have available for additional employees, and other similar conditions. By being specific with your requirements, you are making this easier for yourself in the long run and trimming away unnecessary expenses before you even know it. Consider hiring part-timers and contractorsExpanding your conditions for potential employees will widen the pool..

Property is a common investment option for SMSFs, however, the ATO has a number of regulations SMSF owners need to be wary of. The ATO is particularly concerned with those using SMSF assets to invest in property in a way that is detrimental to retirement purposes. To ensure you do not breach provisions of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SISA), here is a breakdown of the ATO’s common regulatory concerns: Whether arrangement amounts to your SMSF are being made to purposes outside of the sole purpose test (referred to as a collateral purpose). Whether your SMSF meets operating standards such as record-keeping, ensuring assets are appropriately valued and recorded at market price, and keeping SMSF assets separate from members’ assets. Whether the arrangement includes the SMSF acquiring assets from a related party. If the arrangement features the SMSF borrowing..