As a small business owner we wear a lot of hats:
Business owners normally are able to claim a tax deduction on their wages paid, regardless of whether they have fulfilled the ATO’s PAYG Withholding and reporting obligations for that payment.
Think your good old spreadsheet or notepad is good enough to keep track of employees’ wages? Think again!
On 12 February 2019, the Parliament has passed the laws requiring all businesses use single touch payroll from 1 July 2019.
This means that from 1 July 2019 onwards, all businesses that employ staff, whether it is 1 or 100, are required to register for single touch payroll to keep track of their employee wages, PAYG Withholding and superannuation obligations.
A few important updates from Office of State Revenue affecting businesses that is registered for payroll tax, or those who pays motor vehicle allowance to employees.
For businesses that are registered for payroll tax, the due date for lodgement and payment of your December 2018 payroll tax return has been extended to midnight 14 January 2019. You may still receive reminders to lodge by 7 January 2019 – feel free to ignore them.
The ATO has increased the cents per km rate from 66 cents/km to 68 cents/km from 1 July 2018. This change applies to eligible individuals who claims work-related car expenses under the cents per km method.
Using the new rate, eligible individuals can claim a maximum of $3,400 as tax deduction against their income.
Note the work-related car expenses deduction is still subject to the following:
Although the ATO has increased the reasonable rate for work-related car expenses claim to 68 cents per km from 1 July 2018, for payroll tax purposes, you are only entitled to claim 66 cents in your payroll tax returns for the 2018-2019 financial year. The 68 cents per km claim comes into effect on 1 July 2019 (2019-2020 financial year).
The motor vehicle allowance for payroll tax purposes refers to an allowance paid to an employee who uses their own car for business-related travel is exempt from payroll tax up to a reasonable amount (currently 66 cents per km for 2018-19 financial year). To claim this exemption, business km travelled must be recorded.
We can help you in the following ways:
Have a specific payroll tax question? Contact us for help!
Every now and then we get asked the question – “I want to hire someone to help with our business so I can have more time growing my business.” But before you put an ad up, or spread the word around, have you considered the following 10 things about finding the right staff, your business financial situation and understand the extra compliance work required?
