The following examines some common misunderstood rules around the employee vs contractor situation.
You may have an ABN but that does not make you a contractor.
Fact: The ATO has various checks to ensure business owners are treating their staff/contractors correctly.
To put it simply, the ATO will look at the work arrangement and the way the payments were calculated etc to determine whether one is an employee or not.
As an Employer, you are responsible to make sure the tax you withhold from employees’ wages is at the correct level. For those employers hiring backpackers who are in Australia on a 417 or 462 working holiday visa, you’ll need to follow the tax rate changes that commenced on 1 January 2017.
When your business is registered for GST, you know that you are able to claim a credit back on your next BAS for the GST you pay to your Supplier. But what happens when the Supplier is charging you GST when they aren’t actually registered to collect GST? You may pay them the extra 10% on their invoice but you are not entitled to claim that credit back from the ATO. If it has already been claimed, you may have to refund it to the ATO at a later date.
It is with great pleasure that we announce that Emily Yip has joined us as a partner from 1 July 2017.
A lot of our clients walk in the our door feeling frustrated about their current accounting software not being able to deliver what they wanted, or simply their system is out of date and is too costly to replace with a new software. There are also clients who are always on the go and find desktop software limiting their business to reach their full potential.
While speaking to them, we find most of the clients would love to try something else but are scratching their heads as to where to start.
Perhaps they haven’t met Xero!
