March 2024 Newsletter

Contents:

Victorian 2024 Land Tax Assessment Explained
ATO engages debt collection agency recoveriescorp
First industrial manslaughter conviction in Victoria
A super guide to the bring-forward rule
Interview questions employers shouldn’t ask you
Super contribution caps to rise on July 1
Announcements

Victorian 2024 Land Tax Assessment Explained

Earlier this month the State Revenue Office of Victoria commenced issuing land tax assessment notices for the 2024 land tax year.

This year, because of higher land tax rates and increased valuations being ascribed to properties, taxpayers are seeing some substantial increases to their land tax liability.

ATO engages debt collection agency recoveriescorp

If you have an overdue debt and don’t respond to our request to pay, we may send you a pre-referral warning letter. If you don’t respond to the letter or engage with us to pay your debt, you will be referred to the external debt collection agency.

If your debt has been referred to recoveriescorp they will contact you to request payment by phone call, email, SMS or letter.

First industrial manslaughter conviction in Victoria

In a stark reminder to employers of their safety responsibilities, a stonemasonry business became the first company convicted under Victoria’s workplace manslaughter laws, fined $1.3 million after causing the death of a worker who was fatally crushed at a Somerton factory.

A super guide to the bring-forward rule

Due to indexation, the concessional cap will increase to $30,000 per year and the non-concessional cap will increase to $120,000 per year from 1 July 2024.
The increase to the non-concessional cap also affects the bring forward rule.
The table below shows how your Total Superannuation Balance (TSB) will affect the bring forward period available to you in 2024-25 if you trigger the rule that year.

Interview questions employers shouldn’t ask you

Before you head to an interview, it’s important to be aware of the questions that recruiters and employers shouldn’t be asking you.
Employers use job interviews as a way to work out how suitable you are for a role – and the interview is an ideal opportunity to discuss your skills and expertise.
But there are limits to what employers can or should ask you about. Here’s what you need to know.

Super contribution caps to rise on July 1

Superannuation contribution caps will go up on July 1, after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported an increase in average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE).

The ABS reported the AWOTE rose 4.5%, seasonally adjusted, in the year to November 2023 – much more than the 0.07% needed to trigger a change in the contribution caps.

Announcements:

This month we have no birthdays or work anniversaries to announce!

Important ATO Dates

Lodgement Program	Date
February monthly activity statements	21/03/2024

Other News

Victorian Land Tax

In 2023, the Victorian Government introduced a COVID Debt Repayment Plan which resulted in a number of temporary changes to land tax that will be in place for the next 10 years.

The State Revenue Office’s land tax calculation can be somewhat confusing where clients have say, affected property in joint names or multiple Victorian properties affected. If you have any queries you can contact the State Revenue Office (SRO) on 13 21 61 or contact our office.

Taxable Payments Annual Reporting

ATO issues ‘last warning’ on overdue TPARs!

The Tax Office will begin applying failure to lodge penalties for those with an overdue taxable payments annual report from 22 March.

Work out if you need to lodge a TPAR

MYOB Changes

The new monthly base subscription prices below will be effective from 1 April 2024:

Product

New base subscription price per month (including GST)

Price increase

MYOB Business Payroll Only

$12

MYOB Business Lite

$31

MYOB Business Pro

$58

MYOB AccountRight Basics

$68

MYOB AccountRight Standard

$81

MYOB AccountRight Plus

$141

MYOB AccountRight Premier

$177

ATO Rental Data Matching

The Rental bond data matching protocol has recently been updated.

This data, together with third-party rental data from property managers, banks, landlord insurers and sharing economy providers gives the ATO insight into the Australian rental market.

While many landlords remember to include regular rent received in their tax return, any bond money they retain is often missed.

If you have forgotten to tell your accountant about any rent or bond money you have retained, lodge an amendment as soon as possible.

Find out about the Rental bond data matching program.

Bigpond Email Addresses

It has come to our attention that a few clients have been moving from their existing Bigpond email to an alternative of late as they are concerned that Bigpond email addresses are being phased out. What we have ascertained:

Telstra stopped providing new Bigpond email address several years ago (2016), new clients are issued with a Telstra email instead
The hosting of Bigpond email addresses were migrated to a Microsoft server and are not ‘hosted’ by Telstra anymore
Any Telstra customer leaving Telstra and wanting to retain their Bigpond email would need to pay a $79 annual subscription fee
TPG recently ceased providing certain email services due to the cost and resources it tied up, this has led to speculation that Telstra may also
However it seems unlikely that Telstra would just shutoff Bigpond email without providing a viable alternative due to the huge number of customers this might encourage to go elsewhere
Those considering a change of email need to consider how this will affect logging into the various cloud services they may use where their username is their email address

For those clients that have already changed or are considering changing their Bigpond email address please remember to inform us so we can keep you up to date with any relevant tax information.