The Australian Taxation Office offer a range of tools and services to help make it easier for you to get your tax and superannuation right, and to help your business thrive.
Owning and operating a business comes with many rewards, but also a lot of work. The Australian Taxation Office knows business owners often have a lot to manage and have provided information on some current topics which you should consider if you have an existing business, or are looking to buy or sell one.
For more information on starting your business you can talk to your registered tax or BAS agent, visit ato.gov.au/sbsupport, and you can subscribe to the ATO’s regular articles from the Small Business Newsroom at ato.gov.au/sbnewssubscribe.
Instant asset write-off
If you’ve recently bought a new business you may need to look at buying or upgrading assets for it.
If you plan on doing this, you can take advantage of the instant asset write-off which allows you to make a deduction in your tax return for an asset, costing less than $30,000 until the 30 June 2020.
The threshold applies per asset, so you can use it multiple times if needed.
In the 2019-20 financial year, businesses with a turnover less than $50 million are eligible to take advantage of this.
To find out more about the instant asset write-off and how to claim, visit ato.gov.au/instantassetwriteoff.
Record keeping for businesses
Whether you are buying or selling your business good recordkeeping makes good business sense.
It’s important that you stay on top of your record keeping obligations. The ATO have published the five rules of record keeping, which will help you keep accurate and complete records.
This makes it easier for you when you need to meet your tax and super obligations.
- You need to keep all records related to starting, running, changing, and selling or closing your business that are relevant to your tax and super affairs.
- The relevant information in your records must not be changed and must be stored in a way that protects the information from being changed or the record from being damaged.
- You need to keep most records for five years.
- You need to be able to show us your records if they ask for them.
- Your records must be in English or able to be easily converted to English.
To read more about how you can make sure the records you’re keeping are best practice, see the information at ato.gov.au/recordkeeping.
Natural disaster support for small businesses
The ATO understands large parts of the community have been impacted by recent natural disasters, and they want to reassure you they are there to help.
Your first priority is to focus on your family and community. If you need assistance with your tax affairs, the ATO can help you when you're ready.
If you have been impacted by the recent bushfires and are in an identified impacted postcode, the ATO has automatically deferred any lodgments or payments you have due until 28 May 2020. If you have been affected, but are out of the postcode zone, call the ATO on 1800 806 218 to discuss your circumstances.
You can read more at http://www.ato.gov.au/naturaldisasters