Federal Budget and End of Financial Year Tax Update by William Buck

The recent Federal Budget provided business with some incentives to reinvest in staff and digitising your business, among other measures. Click here to view the William Buck Federal Budget analysis.

The budget remained silent on any changes to the Instant Asset Write Off for new or second hand depreciating assets, meaning the concessional scheme is currently legislated to end on 30 June 2023. Given long lead times on some asset acquisitions or their construction, business may need to move sooner than normal to ensure assets are installed and ready for use before this scheme ends.

Recent correspondence from the ATO highlights their intent to review what is termed “reimbursement agreements”, where income from a Trust is allocated for tax purposes to one person, but the actual cash benefit flows to an entirely different person. ATO reviews are expected to increase for the business sector with the budget also providing the ATO additional resources to investigate taxpayer affairs.

Finally, the end of the 2022 financial year is only three months away, so before the end of the year, consider these strategies to reduce your tax payments:

• Writing off obsolete stock or depreciating assets
• Paying employee superannuation before 30 June
• Bring forward any eligible expenditure into the current financial year

Please contact James Northcote from William Buck on (08) 8409 4333 or james.northcote@williambuck.com if you have any questions.

5 key take-outs for SMEs

Train your employees - Can you use the Skills and Training Boosts for financial support to upskill your workforce?

Digitise your business - Between the TFE and the new technology “boost”, there’s good incentive for technology investments.

Watch your cashflow - Reductions to fuel excise and GST and PAYG instalments will increase cashflow.

Consider digitised tax reporting - It will make your life easier, but will make data matching easier for tax authorities.

Pay attention to tax risks - There is increased funding for ATO audits of larger, riskier business and transactions.

Key policies at a glance

Cost of living - The 2022-23 Budget focused on easing cost of living pressures.

Safer & Cleaner - Measures designed to protect the environment and provide disaster relief.

Health, Aged Care & Education - Increased focus on Health, Aged Care, Disability and Education.

Infrastructure & Regional - Investing in infrastructure with a focus on regional areas.

Women’s Initiatives - Investing in women’s health, leadership and safety.

Read more here https://williambuck.com/tools/federal-budget-2022-23/