Hiring Your First Employee: What It Costs Beyond the Wage Taking on your first employee is a big milestone — it usually means the business has grown to the point where you genuinely can’t do it all yourself anymore. It’s also the point where a lot of business owners get a surprise, because the

  Farm Management Deposits Explained: Smoothing Income in Good and Bad Seasons Anyone who’s farmed for more than a few years knows the pattern: a couple of good seasons where the numbers finally look healthy, followed by a dry, difficult year that wipes a lot of that gain off the ledger. The trouble is, the

  Passing the Farm to the Next Generation Without a Tax Headache If you’ve farmed in the Wimmera for any length of time, you’ve probably had the conversation — maybe over a cup of tea at the kitchen table, maybe in the ute on the way back from checking stock. Someone asks: “So what happens

  Why We’re Asking You to Verify Your Identity: New AML Rules for Accounting Firms If you’ve worked with our firm before, you might notice something different next time we set up a trust or company for you, or handle certain transactions on your behalf: we’ll be asking for photo ID, some extra details, and

Dollars and Dirt #4 By Brian Watts Now that the long hours have passed for another year, crops harvested, stored or sold, dollars in the bank or on the way, what next? Many will be planning ahead to the next cropping season after a few weeks off hopefully! Some might wonder was it all worthwhile

Dollars and Dirt By Brian Watts ‘Forty bags to the acre has been heard more than once in the last week. Wimmera farmers are enjoying well above average yields for certain grain types. My bet is that 2020-21  will go close to being a one-in-ten year, with farm productivity and profits exceeding the most recent

Wimmera Farming – Establishing KPIs By Brian Watts   These days, Wimmera farmers cannot afford to treat their farm as anything other than as a business.  Just taking the value of assets used, the median dollar value in 2019 of farm assets under management was $10,787,000.  That was eighteen months ago! Asset values have not

What does the ‘Typical’ Wimmera Farm look like financially? By Brian Watts   Whilst this is not really possible, this will be fairly close!  We all know that farmers are very quick to help out a neighbour in times of need, in times of a crisis.   This almost goes without saying.  However, when it down

Claiming the GST on a new motor vehicle purchase If your business has motor vehicles (under 1 ton & less than 9 passengers) you are probably already aware of the logbook method for claiming business related expenses such as running costs and decline in value. Earlier this year there was a change to the method

GST Implications for Holiday Houses, Stayz (HomeAway), Booking.com & Air BnB style Properties Harold and Mage, who live in Ramsay Street Ballarat, currently rent 2 short term stay Holiday 3 Bedroom houses in Torquay through AirBnB that they have operated since 2010. They are increasing their investment in this area by adding another 2 x