August 2016 Edition

In this edition:

Welcome

Accountants now licensed to give SMSF advice

ATO small business benchmarks updated

ATO focus on rental properties

Investment timing versus strategy

The ATO has announced the latest benchmarks for small businesses. Based on the data from 2014 income tax returns and business activity statements, the benchmarks cover over 1.3 million small businesses.

Small business benchmarks are a guide to help compare your business's performance against similar businesses in the same industry. The benchmarks:

• are calculated from income tax returns and activity statements from over 1.3 million small businesses and are verified as being statistically valid by an independent organisation.
• account for businesses with different turnover ranges (up to $15 million) across more than 100 industries.
• are published as a range to recognise the variations that occur between businesses due to factors such as location and the businesses circumstances.

The ATO benchmarks give business owners the opportunity to compare their businesses with other similar businesses. They can also be used by the ATO to identify businesses that may not be meeting their tax obligations.

ATO Assistant Commissioner Matthew Bambrick said one of the great things about the benchmarks was that they gave a lot of small-business owner's peace of mind. "If a small business is inside the benchmark range for their industry and the ATO hasn't received any extra information that may cause concern, they can be confident that they probably won't hear from us", Mr Bambrick said.

Mr Bambrick said some small businesses outside the benchmark range may simply be incorrectly registered, or the business intent may have changed since starting up. "These types of small administrative errors can be easily fixed by checking the previous year's tax return to see which business industry code was used and then updating it in the next return and on the Australian Business Register", Mr Bambrick said.

For a full list of the industries covered and for further information regarding the benchmarks please visit the ATO's small business benchmarks website.

Please contact the Goodwin Chivas Team for more information.