Hawkesbury Bookkeeping

Affordable Bookkeeping Solutions for your Small Business

Education

SG Amnesty – a chance to set things right

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If you haven’t paid the right amount of super guarantee (SG) to your workers, the SG amnesty is the time to come forward. If you disclose your SG shortfalls during the amnesty, you can rectify past unpaid SG without incurring charges or penalties.

The SG amnesty runs until 6 September 2020 however, given this is a Sunday, applications are accepted until 11.59pm on Monday 7 September 2020.

SG shortfalls for any quarter between 1 July 1992 and 31 March 2018 may be eligible if you have not been told we are examining your SG obligation for the period your disclosure relates to.

If you disclose your SG shortfalls and are found eligible:

  • you must pay the SG shortfall plus interest
  • any payments you make before 11.59pm on Monday 7 September 2020 in your local time are tax deductible, including payments through a payment plan.

However, you must pay your SG shortfalls (or payment instalments) to remain eligible. If you default on your payment plan, you will no longer be eligible for the amnesty.

It’s important you act on this opportunity now to get your obligations up to date. If you’re aware of any unpaid SG for the periods covered under the amnesty and choose not to come forward, the consequences will be significant. Penalties include:

  • up to 200% penalty on top of the SG and interest you owe (minimum 100% penalty)
  • administration charges ($20 per employee per quarter).

If you’ve been impacted by recent bushfires, we understand that your priority is on your family and community at this time. However, the law doesn’t allow us to vary the due date for lodgment of an SG amnesty application.

Please view other resources:

ATO: Superannuation guarantee amnesty

If you need assistance in lodging SG shortfalls, please Contact Us or Book a Chat.

Information provided by ATO Small Business Newsroom

Don’t let your business become a cyber crime statistic

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Did you know using a simple statement like ‘I don’t like pineapple on my pizza!‘ as a password can take more than one year and costs scammers $107,000 to crack? The reason it’s a great password is it:

  • is easy to remember
  • has 35 characters
  • includes an apostrophe, exclamation mark and spaces.

This is just one of the tips you can find in a range of resources available to help you protect your business. These resources have been developed by us and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) who recently surveyed small businesses about cyber security.

The ACSC found 75% of small business owners surveyed are responsible for their own IT and almost half say they don’t know enough about cyber security.

Take a look at these resources and have a serious think about protecting your business.

Next steps:

Information provided by the ATO Small Business Newsroom

Record keeping for your business

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Confused about the records that you need to keep and how long you need to keep those records for?

Click here to refer to the ATO’s resource on keeping accurate records for your business.

If your books are in a mess and your record keeping needs an overhaul, Book a Chat with us today because we can certainly help you.

Stay Smart Online Week

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7-13 October 2019

If your organisation uses the internet for email, banking, accounting, running a website or other activities, you need to know how to keep your information and assets safe. Many small businesses don’t realise they could be an attractive target for hackers – but the good news is that you can take simple steps to protect your business and customers.

You may not think that your business could be a target, but cybercriminals are motivated by a variety of factors – most of them lead back to money!

Cybercriminals make money through holding data to ransom, stealing funds from bank accounts, identity theft and sale of stolen information. Profits from these activities are highly lucrative and can be fairly easily obtained from unprotected businesses.

It’s easy for a business to underestimate the potential harm that a cyber incident could cause. Loss of revenue, damage to equipment and reputation are some of the concerns that can come from cybercrime and other malicious online activities. Even if no data is lost, the impact can still be detrimental for organisations. Don’t think that it can’t happen to you.

By acting now to prepare your business, there is a good chance that you can protect your interests and recover from an incident. 

Investing in your online security will almost certainly save you money in the long run – even if you suffer a cyber incident, the cost and time of any recovery is likely to be less if you have good measures in place. 

Every day we take measures to safeguard ourselves and our businesses in other areas. Likewise, protecting your business information should become part of normal day-to-day activities.

For more important information on how to protect your business, visit https://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/protect-your-business

Information provided by Stay Smart Online