NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2014
Unit 3 12 Grebe Street
Peregian Beach Q 4573
We're looking for a new employee.
Attitude and approach to your work is the most crucial requirement. We are looking for someone who wants the opportunity to learn all aspects of the accounting business, starting off in administration but progressing through bookkeeping accounting and taxation. Our preference is to promote from within so you will start at the ground floor and progress as you learn and demonstrate your potential making way for your replacement in your old position. You must be well presented, well mannered and capable of independent action. Full training will be provided as needed and we encourage and support further studies. Apply with your resume via email, post or in person.
BAS & Super - Late Lodgements
Lately the ATO has been applying penalties very harshly it seems. If BAS is lodged late, penalties of $170 can apply if it's even one day late, and there is an additional $170 penalty for every 28 days late after that. In addition to late penalties, the ATO also charges interest on the amount payable for every day it's paid late. When we prepare your BAS we must have your permission to lodge the figures we have calculated, so please respond promptly to our email requesting your approval, to avoid being late with lodging.
Furthermore, with late super lodgements the tax law doesn't grant the Tax Commissioner any leeway to lift the administrative charges ($20 per employee per quarter) and nominal interest that is charged from the first day the super is lodged late. This means that even if you made a genuine mistake or had circumstances that would otherwise grant you a remission of charges levied on late BAS or tax lodgements, the Commissioner cannot remove the charges if they were for late super. Super is always due on the 28th day of the month after the last day of the quarter, eg March 2014 quarter super will be due on 28 April 2014. Where the due date falls on a weekend or a public holiday plan ahead to make sure the payment is processed before it's due because, as one of our clients found out the hard way recently, even paying on the next business day may lead to the imposition of late payment charges.
Peregian Beach near our office
LINKS
Contact
Peregian Accounting -
Adaptive Accounting
Web:www.adaptive.net.au
Email: info@adaptive.net.au
Phone: 61 7 5448 1218
Fax: 61 7 5448 1221
As you may already know, the responsibility for registering and renewing business names has been shuffled over from the various state and territory fair trade departments to the federal Australian Securities & Investment Commission. In the middle of 2014, ASIC are going to introduce a simplified payment service to make it easier to renew your business name. You will no longer need to create an ASIC Connect account, instead you'll be able to access the service directly from the ASIC homepage and should be able to complete the process in 5 steps.
While we're on the topic of business name registrations, many people are surprised to learn that registering a business name doesn't grant them the exclusive use of that name: it's possible to have more than one organisation using the same business name. If you want to have exclusive use of a particular name, you need to register it as a trademark with IP Australia. Searching for existing trademarks is free of charge, but registering a trademark attracts fees.Upcoming Due Dates
- February 28 : Dec 2013 quarter BAS due for lodging and paying.
- February 28 : Dec 2013 quarter PAYG Instalments due for payment (lodgement only required if varying the amount).
- February 28 : SMSF annual returns for new registrants due for lodging and paying.
- February 28 : Dec 2013 Superannuation Guarantee Charge Statements due for lodging and paying.
- March 21 : Feb 2014 monthly BAS due for lodging and paying (only for those on monthly reporting cycles).
SuperStream - SMSF trustees, are you ready?
SuperStream was a recommendation of the Cooper Review into the superannuation system, whose purpose was to smooth and standardise transferring money within the superannuation system. Businesses with 20 or more employees will be required to send contributions using a new data and e-commerce format from 1 July 2014. There are implications for Self-Managed Super Funds also: if you work for a business that has more than 20 employees and you are receiving your super contributions into a SMSF your fund will need to be ready to receive the contributions in the new format.
SMSFs trustees will already be well-aware that rolling over their super from APRA-regulated funds to SMSFs can be time-consuming and unnecessarily bureaucratic. With SuperStream, once an APRA fund has adopted the new standard, SMSFs will be able to receive rollovers from them electronically. Other key objectives of the new data format include:
- Speeding up the time taken to process contributions from members to their funds,
- Providing better information about super payments made to employees (for example, the amount and the timing),
- Providing notification to members on whether and when contributions have been received,
- Improving data matching and reducing the impact of lost super using TFNs as a primary search key.
The details about how this will be achieved are technical, but the executive summary is that the employer sends a single contributions message each quarter covering all employees to a gateway that breaks the message up and distributes it to each of the employees' funds in Standard Business Reporting (SBR) format.
SuperStream is already up and running for APRA funds, who have been able to receive SuperStream compliant rollover data and electronic money transfers, and have started sending compliant rollovers. From 1 July 2014, however, all super funds, including SMSFs, must receive contributions from employers with 20 or more employees in the new standard format. Then, from 1 January 2015 it is expected that SMSFs will also start using the new standard for payments and receipt of rollovers, ie for outgoings and reporting, not just receiving contributions. By 1 July 2015 it is expected that SMSFs will receive all contributions, not just those from large/medium employers, in the standard format.
Most payroll software programs have already released, or are about to release SuperStream products to integrate with their existing software. If you outsource your payroll or use a superannuation clearing house they should already be aware of the technical details and be able to give you further guidance about what you need to do to be ready.
The SuperStream obligations are mandatory for employers and funds alike. Failure to comply can attract a penalty of up to $3,400. Also, the same "strict liability" approach applies as with other aspects of super, meaning that it doesn't matter whether you forgot to comply or didn't know you had to, you could still be penalised as if you had deliberately not complied. So, be ready!
More information
If you have any feedback or suggestions for our newsletter please email us at newsletter@adaptive.net.au
Until our next contact
Good Health & Good Luck