Welcome to July! Here is what you need to know as we head into the new financial year of 2024.

This month there are four key dates you need to note and make sure you don’t miss:

Friday 14 July

End of year finalisation declaration through STP due.

Friday 21 July

Lodge and pay June 2023 monthly business activity statement.
Lodge and pay Quarter 4, 2022–23 PAYG instalment activity statement for head companies of consolidated groups.

Friday 28 July

Pay Quarter 4, 2022–23 instalment notice (form R, S or T). Lodge the notice only if you vary the instalment amount.
Make super guarantee contributions for Quarter 4, 2022–23 to funds by this date. Employers who do not pay minimum super contributions for Quarter 4 by this date must pay the super guarantee charge and lodge a Superannuation guarantee charge statement by 28 August 2023.

Monday 31 July

Lodge TFN report for closely held trusts if any beneficiary quoted their TFN to a trustee in Quarter 4, 2022–23.

From 1 August 2023 small business employers are required to provide their employees with 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave (FDVL) per year.
Businesses with 15 or more employees have been required to do this since 1 February 2023.

It is a unique type of leave for a few reasons:

Casual staff are entitled to FDLV. If a casual employee is rostered on for a shift, and needs to access this leave, then they are entitled to be granted the leave and be paid for the shift.
This leave is not pro-rata. Any employee, regardless of their employment type or normal hours, can access up to 10 days FDVL.
This leave does not accrue. That means all your employees can access the full 10 days upfront, regardless of length of service.
This leave does not accumulate. It is fixed to 10 days per 12 month period and doesn’t carry forward. It renews on their work anniversary.
It is payable at the rate the employee would have earned if they had worked, not their base rate. That means an employee is entitled to be paid any incentive based payments and bonuses; loading’s; monetary allowances; overtime or penalty rates; and any other separately identifiable monetary amounts for the time they need to take FDVL.

FDVL can be accessed if an employee is dealing with the impact of family and domestic violence. This might include:

Making arrangements for their personal safety or the safety of a close relative. This could include relocating themselves or their family members to a safe place.
Attending court.
Accessing police services.
Going to counselling appointments.
Going to appointments with support services – medical, financial or legal professionals.

You do have a right to request evidence of the need to take leave however this must be handled with confidentiality and only used to confirm the need for leave. It can not be used for any other purpose within the business.

If you have any concerns about this leave and how it might affect your business, reach out to our HR Partner, Maureen Kyne at HR Blueprint, via email at admin@hrblueprint.com.au.

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The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is encouraging small businesses that have overdue income tax returns, fringe benefits tax returns or business activity statements to take advantage of a new amnesty to get their lodgments back on track.

The amnesty was announced in the 2023–24 Budget. It applies to tax obligations that were originally due between 1 December 2019 and 28 February 2022 and runs from 1 June 2023 to 31 December 2023.

To be eligible for the amnesty, you must meet the following criteria:

Had an annual turnover of less than $10 million at the time the original lodgment was due.
Have overdue income tax returns, business activity statements or fringe benefits tax returns that were due between 1 December 2019 and 28 February 2022.
Lodge those overdue forms between 1 June and 31 December 2023.

Take advantage of the amnesty but be warned superannuation obligations and other administrative penalties such as those associated with the Taxable Payments Reporting System are not included.

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Single Touch Payroll (STP) is the way you report your employees’ tax and super information to the ATO.
With STP-enabled payroll or accounting software, employers submit this information to the ATO automatically each time they process payroll.

Some of the key benefits of reporting through STP include:

You will no longer have to send the ATO your employees’ tax file number (TFN) declarations. Your employees will provide it to you, and you’ll need to keep it with your employee records.
You may no longer need to provide separation certificates when your employees leave. The date and reason an employee leaves will be in your STP report.
STP also shares payroll information you report to the ATO in near real-time with Services Australia.

There are a number of key changes made to STP reporting for the 2024 financial year.

One of the biggest changes is reporting the amounts you have paid to employees.

Your STP report currently includes a gross amount that gets sent to the ATO. This is the total of many different components and payment types. As some of these are treated differently for social security purposes, you will now need to report in more detail.

Please see the below ATO link for a break down of the details required.

Don’t forget to complete the 2023 finalisation declaration for Single Touch Payroll by 14 July 2023.

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As part of the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review 2022-23, from 1 July 2023 the award minimum wages increase by 5.75% reaching $882.80 per week or $23.23 per hour.

Ensure to reviewing your awards to make sure your staff are being paid the correct amounts per Fair Work. Where employers are already paying rates that are higher than the relevant minimum wage, they will not need to increase their rates of pay, unless the new minimum wages overtake the rates that are currently being paid.

Although employees will welcome this significant wage increase, this decision places an additional economic burden on employers who are already struggling with the rise of inflation and other rising costs out of their control and now to be burdened with the highest increase to minimum wages since the commencement of the Fair Work Act 2009.

At JH & Co we have been brainstorming ways that we can assist during these times. Inflation has hit businesses hard with a lot of people struggling with rising costs and struggling to keep the doors open. Please do not hesitate to contact us and arrange a meeting so we can assist during these changes.

HR Blueprint, our business partner, are also available to discuss your concerns that these changes are going to have on your business. Reach out to them for a consultation on admin@hrblueprint.com.au

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The Victorian Government recently announced changes to the average rate used to calculate Work Cover premiums for 2023-24, along with some proposals for changes to eligibility and entitlements.

The Government announced that the average premium rate would move to 1.8% of remuneration from 2023-24. This will see the average premium rate better align to the Break Even Premium (BEP), which is the amount of premium the scheme needs to collect to meet the cost of claims in any coming year, plus a provision for claims incurred in that year.

Premium Notices and Invoices reflecting the above changes for 2023/2024 financial year will be issued to you on 8 July 2023.

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Are you aware of the cyber challenges that you face not only individually but when running a business? NAB research shows over 1 in 5 Australians and just over 1 in 10 businesses have been victims of a cyber-attack, scam or data breach in the past 12 months alone.

So what does a cyber threat or attach look like?

Phishing messages:

Emails or text messages attempting to trick you into clicking on a link, providing log in credentials or personal information to an unauthorized source.

Business email compromise:

When an organisations email account is taken over by criminals to conduct fraudulent activities such as sending fake invoices or requesting updates to bank account details.

Urgency:

When someone is asking for an urgent transfer of money because of an accident or trouble.

To become more scam savvy and brush up on new tips see the below link.

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Are you looking for funding for an event, project, new business, or growing your current business?

Both Business Victoria and Greater Shepparton City Council have grants open right now – but some have deadlines so act fast if you wish to apply.

Community Grants Program – Greater Shepparton City Council

The below community grant is currently open and ongoing.

New Business Grant

The New Business Grant has been established in order to assist with economic development opportunities and investment in Greater Shepparton. Funding will be provided for infrastructure or initiatives that support the establishment of new businesses in Greater Shepparton.

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