Angela is a registered BAS Agent with a strong background in HR and will work from home.
Pamela has many years of experience across a broad range of industries and joins us in the office each week. Come in to meet her.
Angelique is a bookkeeper in training. She is a fast learner who also assists with administrative tasks.
Michelle is taking a leave of absence to enjoy some new ventures with her daughter. They are selling homemade make goods online. We hope to try her specialities soon.
Lorna finished up at Swag last month after several wonderful years with us. We appreciate her dedication and support she has given us for those many years. We couldn’t have done it without her.
We look forward to sharing more of their stories over the next few months.
The end of the financial year is a time when many important decisions can be made to the advantage of you and your business, but there is often work to be done. With just weeks left in the 2018-2019 financial year, you have limited time to focus on your EOFY to-do list.
Once the new financial year rolls over it can be too late to take advantage of income tax and superannuation concessions that benefit you and your business.
Get your books up to date to give you a good indication of your business performance and position for the year. You will need to estimate your income and expenses for the remainder of the financial year, but with reliable and current information, you will have a good idea of turnover, income and expenses, liabilities still to be met, prepayments that can be made and how much profit you have made for the year.
Your accountant is your tax expert and should be engaged in forward planning so that you achieve the maximum benefit from your position and also understand your obligations.
The government allows a number of tax concessions if your business is an eligible small business entity.
For superannuation contributions to be claimed as a deduction in this financial year, the contribution must be received by the super fund by 30th June 2019. Note that processing of payments can take several working days, so payment should be timed to take this into consideration.
If planning to make an extra contribution to super, check how much super has been paid to date. There are limits to the amount of super that can be contributed each year. Paying in excess can result in extra tax being paid.
The government has increased the threshold for instant asset write-off. This has been extended to 30 June 2020 so the opportunity is there to be strategic about your business investment and take advantage of the $30,000 asset write-off
Single Touch Payroll is the new payroll reporting system that the government has introduced.
Employers with 19 or fewer employees should be implementing Single Touch Payroll as of 1st July 2019. Businesses also have the option of implementing this system before the due date.
Most businesses with 20 or more employees should already be using STP.
The new system means many businesses will need to upgrade to a cloud accounting software package, although there are options for employers who do not use payroll software.
As an employer, you are required to provide PAYG Summaries to your employees by July 14th unless this information has already been reported through Single Touch Payroll (STP). The PAYG Summary show how much you have paid the employee during the year, and the amount of tax that you have withheld. They must then be lodged electronically with the ATO via the Business Portal, BAS Agent Portal, Tax Agent Portal or SBR provider by August 14th.
With so much going on at that time of the year, it can be prudent to do a bit of advance housekeeping of your payroll records during June, to avoid any last-minute issues once the financial year ends. This is particularly important for MYOB users, who are not able to process payroll in the new financial year until the last payroll year is closed off.
CLICK HERE to find our review checklist
As business owners, we all have our own skills and areas of expertise. We tend to be busy with the day to day demands of our business and responsible for driving the growth of our business.
If prioritizing the end of financial year review is proving a challenge, employing the support of a certified bookkeeper or BAS Agent can take the pressure off and help you to meet the necessary deadlines.
Having another expert on board should not only save you time and money but also give you peace of mind.
As an employer, you are required to provide PAYG Summaries to your employees by July 14th unless this information has already been reported through Single Touch Payroll (STP). The PAYG Summary show how much you have paid the employee during the year, and the amount of tax that you have withheld. They must then be lodged electronically with the ATO via the Business Portal, BAS Agent Portal, Tax Agent Portal or SBR provider by August 14th.
With so much going on at that time of the year, it can be prudent to do a bit of advance housekeeping of your payroll records during June, to avoid any last-minute issues once the financial year ends.
This is particularly important for MYOB users, who are not able to process payroll in the new financial year until the last payroll year is closed off.
If you do identify issues that you are unable to resolve, this housekeeping will give you the opportunity to find professional assistance before the EOFY rush.
Since I, Tracie, am the traveler, I thought I would share a recent trip I made to Antigua Guatemala for my birthday. I asked a few of my long-term friends to meet me in one of my favorite places. The picture above has us in front of one of the many volcanos around Antigua.
Our visit happened to be during the month of Easter. In Antigua, they celebrate for five weeks leading up to Easter Sunday. Each weekend they celebrate with street expressions of faith, called processions. The processions commemorate the passion, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
They create beautiful “rugs” made from natural materials, such as sand and flowers. Floats are made and carried by curcuruchas (carriers) bearing the 7,000 pounds. The curcuruchas carry the floats through the beautiful rugs.
On Holy Saturday’s processions are dedicated to images of the Virgin Mary of Sorrow. Women dress in their finest outfits and often wear high heels. Young children walk under the anda while their mothers shoulder the immense float.
What a joy it was to be in Antigua during this time. The Spanish tradition of Semana Santa (Holy Week) arrived with the Spaniards to Guatemala in 1542. Almost 500 years later, Guatemala holds one of the most elaborate celebrations in the world
If you are interested in Antigua and it’s Semana Santa, Click here
Well, its time to tell you about myself. I was born in Southern California to a Californian mother and Texan father. I spent my adolescent summers in Texas with my father and ended up marrying a Texan. I had two children and raised them in Texas. They are grown and have started their own families of their own. In 2014, I sailed away in our sailboat for the Caribbean.
My husband, our little dog, Schooner, and I have been sailing around the Western Caribbean for the past five years. I got a little bored and started working online. I know that sounds crazy but it makes me happy. I am currently in Guatemala preparing to leave our boat and fly back to Texas for the summer or longer. Time to visit family and especially the grandson.
So what is my background? I first got my degree in Finance. I had thought I wanted to be a financial adviser but working in the field I quickly realized it wasn’t a great fit for me. I then went to work for a State hospital in Texas with their WIC Program. Later, I moved into their records department, as the financial coordinator.
The hospital was damaged in a hurricane and three-quarters of us were laid off. Turned out, it happened at a great time; my father needed me for medical reasons. After caring for him, I decided to return to school.
We always planned to go cruising when the kids were out on their own. I had a few years before that happened so I took the opportunity to get my degree in Sociology. I felt I could work with nonprofits in some of the countries we visit on our boat.
I enjoy being a Minimalist Gypsy. I hope to maintain this lifestyle for another five years. I want to continue traveling by land and sea.
If you use your car in the process of performing your work, you may be able to claim a tax deduction for this cost. The ATO accepts two methods for calculating this cost.
Here is an article that gives you information on the latest mileage tracker apps for 2019. Click Here
For more information from the ATO office Click Here
Need Help – Click Here
Melissa has grown up and is still living in Epping in Victoria. Her background nationality is half Italian and half Maltese.
She has been working for Swag Bookkeeping since May 2018. She was looking for a part-time job close to home with flexibility like many young people starting a family.
Before Swag, she worked for another bookkeeping company part-time as well as chased after two cheeky rascals. Her daughter, Elyse, is five and son, Dion, is three. In addition to being a full-time mother and part-time bookkeeper for SWAG, she also performs all the administration and bookkeeping duties for herhusband’s Electrical business.
In her very little spare time, she enjoys reading, spending time with friends and family, long walks along the beach, jet skiing and loves to travel. If she did not study accounting she could see herself doing something with planes and traveling.
In the next five years, she hopes to further her education and increase her work profile when her kids begin school. That will allow her to have more time to focus on her career. And of course like most of the SWAG employees she would also love to continue traveling around Australia and overseas. P
Teamwork Projects enables you to stay on track of your projects and deliver them on time. Its workflows are intelligently streamlined to be effective for your processes. Key features include instant comprehensive reports, Gantt charts, milestones, time tracking, and task management. The best part is you can perform task coordination, documentation, and communication in one place to make your team’s work more productive.
Teamwork Desk empowers you to effortlessly manage all your tickets and inbound communication. It is a support hub for help doc creation and inbound communication that allows your team to work 24/7. You can measure traffic channels, tam productivity, and customer satisfaction. This module is seamlessly integrates with Teamwork Projects and the other tools you use.
Teamwork also offers a Chat tool for free as an alternative to Slack. You can attach files, search conversations and mobile chant with this free app.
Why did Sheree choose Teamwork over Asana? The software provides systems that come with basic and advanced tools that are not as confusing as the other well-known platforms. We can organize our projects, teams, resources, schedules and more with ease and speed. It will allow us to collaborate effectively with members of our team as well as our clients. Another feature she liked is we can go mobile because it is compatible with iPhone, iPad, Android, Google Chrome and the Web.
Overview of Teamwork Features
We hope this helps you with your business. Remember we are always here for you. For more on Teamwork click below.
Tasmania is a great tourist destination. It is picturesque, rich in history, culinary delights and outdoor adventure opportunities. We recently traveled to Launceston to attend the wedding of a friend in his 80’s, reunited with the love of his life after 40 years of searching. A love story to touch your heart; to make you smile.
The reception at the Country Club was a veritable feast- way too delicious to exercise moderation, so come Sunday we were looking to do something a little more active. We had stayed overnight at Deloraine and opted for a tour of the Marakoopa Cave near Mole Creek. The temperature inside the caves is a constant 9 degrees all year round, so if you are planning to visit, it’s advisable to take something warm to wear.
We saw a few glowworms on the ceiling at the start of our tour, with our guide promising that we would see a lot more on the way out once our eyes had adjusted to the low level light in the cave. The cave features stalagmites, formed from water dripping from the straw like stalactites above, underground streams and glittering flowstone formations. It is quite beautiful and incredibly amazing when you appreciate just how many years it takes to create these formations. We did indeed see many more glowworms on our return.
We stopped for breakfast in Mole Creek at Café Bozzey. No bacon and eggs but the Devon tea was a cheerful substitute. Generous, served with real cream and great coffee. The comfortable couch and armchairs added to the experience.
Café Bozzey is full of tourist information. There were various books on sale, some by a local author JH Fletcher. As luck would have it, he wandered in for a coffee while we were there, and we invited him to join us and to tell us about his writing. He is a man who followed his dream and
For more information
http://molecreek.info/natures-wonders/mole-creek-caves/
Once reporting through STP-enabled payroll software you will send tax and super information to the ATO each time you run your payroll and pay your employees.
Here is the STP process:
• Run your regular payroll to pay employees (eg weekly, fortnightly or monthly)
• Your employee receives their salary or wages, and their payslip as they did previously
• Your payroll software includes mandatory fields to capture the STP data, which includes year-to-date salary or wages and super information
• The STP data is sent to the ATO. The STP file is called a “pay event”. The way the file is sent will depend on the software. This may be directly, or through a sending service provider (a third party)
• the ATO receives the STP data and matches the information to the employer and their employees
• The ATO makes STP information available to employees through myGov, to employers through the Business Portal and to tax agents through the Tax Agent Portal. Employees can see their year-to-date tax and super information.
You will no longer need to provide your employees with payment summaries for the information they report through STP. Employees will find the information they need to complete their income tax return in ATO online services, accessed through myGov. Employees who choose not to have a myGov account can contact the ATO to get a copy of their payment summary information.
STP data will also be available to tax agents in pre-filling. From January 2020, the ATO will pre-fill activity statement labels W1 and W2. And note that employers will no longer need to provide the ATO with a payment summary annual report (PSAR).
You will be able to offer online commencement forms to new employees, including Tax file number declaration, Superannuation (super) standard choice, Withholding declaration and Medicare levy variation declaration forms that can be sent to the ATO via myGov.
If you have 20 or more employees on 1 April 2018 you have been required to report to the ATO through STP-enabled software from 1 July 2018, unless you’ve been granted a deferral.
If you have 19 or fewer employees on 1 April 2018 you can choose to report through STP now if your software is ready.
Before using STP
You will most likely need to take a few initial steps to be able to send data to the ATO. These have been outlined by the ATO on this web page.
Note that you do not need an AUSkey if you are using a sending service provider (SSP) such as a registered BAS Agent to send the STP file.
You also do not need an AUSkey if you are using cloud-based or online software to send the STP file, eg Xero, MYOB or Quickbooks. You will connect to the ATO using the unique software ID the software provider has given you. You should check with your software provider if they do not have a software ID.
The software ID is similar to a serial number. You can notify the ATO of the software ID by phoning 1300 85 22 32 or completing a one-off notification through Access Manager (you need an AUSkey to use Access Manager). The ATO will not be able to receive the STP report without the correct software ID.
You will need their own AUSkey if they are using software that connects directly to the ATO, such as an on-premise solution.
The ATO understands the transition to STP is a major change for some you. You, registered agents and software providers have been able to request more time to start STP reporting.
Some software providers applied to the ATO for a later start date (a deferral) for their employer clients. If a software provider has a deferral, they will advise their clients and provide them with a deferral reference number (DRN).
You do not need to do anything with the DRN. This number verifies the provider was granted a deferral by the ATO. Registered agents who also provide a payroll service can apply for a deferral for their clients by using the ATO’s online form.