What’s on your bucket list? This year I’m doing something I’ve always wanted to do and that is go to Bathurst (#IYKYK). Towards the end of the year we often take stock and think – what’s been the defining thing for this year?
And for me the past few years it’s just been hard work and weekends spent behind the keyboard. This year it was time for a change… well we took baby steps towards some change. But you have to start somewhere right!
That’s made me ask nearly everyone the question now of ‘what’s something you’ve been wanting to do and never seem to find the time for’? What is that for you?
We want to hear all about it and even bigger than that, we’d love to hear how you’ll aim to do it in the next 5 years.
If you haven’t connected with us on social media channels yet, then this might be the time – join us there or drop us a line and let us know ‘What’s your number #1 bucket list item that you want to tick off in the next 5 years?’
Special Offer
This month we have a special offer. We’re coming into the Christmas period which is a time that is already busy and that can mean early mornings and late nights. But did you realise that if your health burns out then your business will slow down. Your wellbeing is reflected in the wellbeing of the business.
As a small business owner, we know that running a business can be rewarding but honestly, it can be exhausting. The days are packed and everyone wants a piece of you.
There might be a number of structural changes that need to be made for real long term change, but as an immediate fix we’ve partnered with Rishi from Fitness Ignited for a special offer for our clients.
We’re running a free session called ‘Sustain and Succeed’. This is a 60 minute workshop that moves past the buzzwords of wellbeing, burnout and stress into practical strategies for movement, food, sleep and recovery. We’ll be looking to run this next Tuesday evening 14 October at 6pm (subject to numbers) so if you’d like to register your interest please get in touch with Ivy on 07 55015765.
If you can’t make this one, still get in touch as we can look to schedule another session if there is demand.
Small Business is a Big Deal!
I love small business! There’s no other way to say it. Small, Medium and Family Businesses are the true productivity engine of Australia.
Did you know that there are more that 2.5 million small businesses in this country? We generate 33% of our nations GDP and provide jobs for 5.36 million people, or 42% of the private workforce. You’re part of something big.
But we recognise that it is getting harder to run a business. If there’s anything we can do to support you in your business – whether that be profit improvement, reducing tax (likely one of the largest costs you have), compliance management, helping you buy another business (or sell one) and anything in between – just get in touch.
Please reach out to us and if we can’t help you directly, we’ll know who we can put you in touch with to make a positive change for you
Due Dates for October 2025
The due dates for the month of October are:
6 – Kings Birthday Long Weekend Public Holiday (Queensland)
7 – Monthly Payroll Tax Lodgement (State Tax)
14 – ‘Sustain and Succeed’ Free Online Wellbeing Coaching Session with Rishi
21 – Monthly Activity Statement Lodgements
28 October – Superannuation Guarantee contributions for September 2025 Quarter to funds by this date. (Software submissions generally have a cut off around the 21/10/25)
Upcoming Next Month
7 November – Monthly Payroll Tax Lodgement (State Tax)
21 November – Monthly Activity Statement Lodgement
25 November – September Quarter Activity Statement Lodgement
Employee or Independent Contractor?
The ATO is once again warning business who incorrectly treat an employees as an independent contractor that they risk penalties. The focus is on not correctly declaring PAYG Withholding and paying Superannuation for these extended definition employees.
This is an area that often comes up for discussion and is something we will regularly ask about when we review Sub Contractors in a general ledger. We’ll ask for ABN’s or samples of invoices so we can take a look. With new industries now covered by the reporting regime for Taxable Payment Annual Reports it’s only a matter of time before there is a full extension for this type of reporting to all payees.
Understanding the distinction between employee and independent contractor matters also for Workcover and Payroll Tax, so it pays to make sure that you get it right.
If you’re unsure about this topic please just get in touch.
Individual Tax Returns
We have started to use an online form to collect information to prepare individual tax returns. We’re getting comments like ‘If I’m completing this, I might as well do it myself’ and ‘What do I need you for?’
I feel I need to point out the obvious and say that the completion of a tax return is far more than putting numbers into an online form, it’s the years of experience and training that go into understanding when the law permits such a claim in order to reduce your risk of audit.
We use this form to collect complete and accurate information. This is such an important thing to ensuring quick turnaround time in any form of preparation for returns. Often times follow up questions are necessary because there’s not sufficient detail in what’s been initially provided so that was why we chose to go to the form – a) to collect all relevant information and b) for us to use to help as a gap analysis to ensure that you’re claiming all things that you can.
The questions on the form are there to get a general confirmation of information as well as more detailed information relating to your claims. As you can imagine, we see a lot and the ATO Pre Filling information is not always accurate. In just the past recent years we’ve seen:
- Employment Income Statements doubled up (in one instance, two separate Income Statements were finalised)
- Dividend Income being incorrectly attributed (investment held in a SMSF showing under the individual’s personal TFN)
- Share Sales being incorrectly attributed (we had one client who was reported as having sold shares for $643,389.33 that he had never owned.)
- We’ve even had a property reported as being sold by a client, which was one they never owned.
Without correction and notification to the ATO of issues with this data it can also lead to an automated omitted income letter from the ATO in future years.
When it comes to expenses, this is some of the things we get:
- Just make it the same amount as last year (no we can’t do that)
- I use my car for work (OK you might, but what is the make/model/rego, what is the direct connection between car use and it being ‘for work’, can you demonstrate your employer required you to use the vehicle, do you have a log book or a diary, how many kilometres did you travel – and these are just a few of the questions to verify)
- I pay around $100 per month for my phone (aside from how the phone is connected to employment – was that exactly $100 per month, was it $100 per month for each of the 12 months, and what is the work related %)
- I bought a new computer for work (how much, what date, what is the work related %)
- I had to spend $10,000 to replace the bathroom in my rental property (we need to know the actual amount and understand more about the scenario and documentation to determine if this is a capital improvement or repair)
We will often receive incomplete documents and a number of times we are following up to clarify that you have actually included all items. Common things here include:
- You’re claiming car expenses under a log book (fuel & oil, registration, repairs & maintenance) yet don’t providea copy of the log book for the work %.
- Rental Property Rates and Water – we know from the council jurisdiction to expect two rates and four water notices, but we receive 1 rates notice and 3 water.
- Rental Body Corporate – we have the body corporate invoices but can see that they’re charged 3 times a year and we have one document.
- Rental interest – you provide info on the annual interest charged but when we review the statements there are sizable home loan redraws. We need to know what they’re for to confirm continued deductibility of the interest in full.
It’s these types of things that all lead to follow up questions and time delays in processing the returns.
The ATO is using their Reporting Regimes to collect more and more data about you and transactions being made. This makes individual return preparation a high risk compliance activity for our firm. Therefore, we need to ensure that the information we are collecting and using as the basis for the return is accurate. Don’t forget, ultimately it is you that is signing the return and confirming that you hold all relevant receipts and documentation to evidence these claims.
We’re ultimately doing this to help us help you more effectively and our pricing for online form completion reflects that.
You can register to access here: https://forms.thebeegroup.com.au/registration
Payday Superannuation
Getting ready for Payday Superannuation. Despite all of the concerns raised on processing times, the Government is still full ahead on the PayDay superannuation laws which will require that employees superannuation be paid the same time as their wages. This is a watch this space as there are significant flaws both in the proposed legislation and at this time we’re running on ministerial media releases and spin. There is a an implementation date of the 1 July 2026.
This is another example of a seen to be doing something government with no real practical solutions. They have been warned of the significant flaws in the scheme, the proposed methodology and the enforcement approach being touted. There is currently no real effective infrastructure support to effect this either in a timely manner. This is just another problem waiting to happen for small business owners who employ people.
Closing of the SBSCH
On a related note the ATO is closing the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House effective 1 July 2026. If you use this to lodge your superannuation payments there is a window of time to update your employee management software to find a solution.
If you need to have a chat about your options or need a referral to a bookkeeper who can help you take action on a new software option, please just let us know.
Service M8 Tips
Service M8 recently ran their annual update so Koren ran a free ServiceM8 training that covered all of the latest updates. Koren has said that she’ll make the recording available for our clients if you’re interested via a private link. Just get in touch with her and let her know that you’re from Bee Group and she’ll send it through.
This covered some really useful updates including:
Job Template Improvements
Auto-routing for scheduling
Managing personal Appointments & Staff Leave
New Improved Time Sheets
Custom Reports that’ll report on just about anything
There were a couple of really useful features that she covered, so if you’d like to know more get in touch with Koren on 0432 157 794 or get in touch with her via her website at Clear Business Solutions.
Accountants Letter’s
We are once again being asked for Accountants Letters when it comes to loan refinancing.Our general position is that we do not provide Accountants Letters on general advice from our professional bodies.
The reasoning behind why these would not be ordinarily signed it is because we have been put on notice by our PI insurers and professional bodies about the potential extension of liability for undertaking unlicenced credit activity.
Your financial accounts are not prepared on an assurance basis as I am not an auditor, nor have the accounts been audited. We prepare the financial statements to support the income tax returns. Our terms of engagement are that I am only responsible for the contents to you. Assumption of liability as required by a number of these clauses is outside of my professional indemnity insurance coverage.
The lender needs to make their own decision to extend credit. The following are extracts from from the Joint Professional Bodies Accountants Letter (December 2024) notes:
“If you are applying for a home loan, personal loan, personal lease or even credit purchase to renovate or refinance a residential investment property, your accountant will not be able to provide you with an accountant’s letter, unless they hold an Australian Credit Licence. This is because all consumer credit is regulated by the Australian Investments and Securities Commission and issuing an accountant’s letter in these circumstances may be considered a licensed activity.
Your accountant cannot provide information that they cannot factually verify. They also, cannot provide a service for which they do not have professional indemnity insurance. Both of these situations would be a breach of their professional obligations. Examples may include, but are not limited to:
• Estimate or validate your future income or expenses
• If your business is solvent and will remain solvent
• Your ability to service a loan.”
And further …
“You should ensure that your engagement terms are clear, so that your client understands that no assurance is being provided on the documents (unless you agree to conduct an assurance engagement), nor can any reliance be taken by the client or third parties on the information contained in the documents provided.
A common clause in accountants’ PII policies operates to exclude cover if the accountant has agreed to an action or undertaking as part of a contract, that is, the accountant has taken on a contractual liability. In the case of a client requesting an Accountant’s Letter using the lender’s template, this may result in the accountant expressly or impliedly guaranteeing a certain outcome.”
Basically the PII policy that I have does not like taking on an additional assumption of liability and this has how it has been explained to my by the broker. If the lender isn’t going to rely on it at some future point they wouldn’t ask for it, so while they might *say* it isn’t going to create any issues, it is a warranty in a document that could impact me later. If they don’t need it then it shouldn’t bother them that they don’t have it. It is for them to make the decision to extend credit and not rely on any warranty or assurance that I might provide through a standard letter.
We can provide supporting factual information (for which the Joint Bodies have given us a template) such as previous returns, lodgements etc but we can’t warranty any information or provide assurance declarations. In this instance we will not be able to sign this form without striking out those clauses and it is my understanding that it will not then be accepted by the lender either.
Wanting more?
Many successful business owners face a common frustration—their businesses bring in good money, yet they have little personal wealth to show for it. This gap doesn’t close by working longer hours or pushing harder.
The solution comes from deliberately channeling business profits into personal wealth-building strategies that work even when you don’t.
We have lots of free resources! Check them out by clicking here.
Thanks for reading.
As always, please reach out to us if you have any questions or queries. We look forward to hearing from you.
Have a fabulous October!
PS The end of year Countdown has us at only 11 weeks until Christmas! Are you ready? I know I’m not … maybe next month.
Sheree & the Team at Bee Group Accountants
We have been working hard at improving our systems and building up our team. This means that we are now able to start accepting new clients. If you have someone that you know who is looking for an accountant – please ask them to get in contact with our office via phone, email or through our website.
If there is anything that you think we can improve on too, please be sure to let us know. We are working hard to improve your experience in working with us as well!
We truly appreciate the opportunity to help and welcome any recommendations.
Closing Quote:
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new” – Socrates
