Welcome to your December newsletter from all of us here at Bee Group Accountants.
This newsletter is a little later than some of the earlier months as we are wrapping everything up for our Christmas closure period. We will be going on leave from Wednesday 21 December 2022 at 12 pm and will re-open on Monday 9 January 2023.
Upcoming Dates for December
21 – Lodge and pay November BAS (if you lodge monthly).
21 – Bee Group Accountants closes from the Christmas holiday period. We reopen on Monday 9th January 2023.
24 – Public Holiday – Christmas Eve from 6pm – Midnight
25 – Public Holiday – Christmas Day
26 – Public Holiday – Boxing Day
27 – Observed Public Holiday for Christmas Day
Upcoming Dates for January
January 1 – New Year’s Day
January 2 – Observed Public Holiday for New Year’s Day
January 9 – Bee Group Accountants open for the 2023 Calendar Year
January 26 – Australia Day
Hiring holiday employees? Be aware of important changes to super
If you hire staff as a one off, or on an occasional basis, you need to be aware of recent changes to super guarantee (SG). These changes mean that more of your occasional employees may be eligible for super. These SG changes started on 1 July 2022, so you will need to pay super for employees at a rate of 10.5%, regardless of how much they earn. This is because the $450-per-month threshold for SG eligibility has been removed. Find out more: https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Super-for-employers/.
New Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave
From next year, employees, including casual and part-time employees, will be able to access 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave in a 12-month period.
The new entitlement will be available from:
- 1 February 2023, for employees of non-small business employers (employers with 15 or more employees on 1 February 2023)
- 1 August 2023, for employees of small business employers (employers with less than 15 employees on 1 February 2023).
To find out more about the changes, please visit New paid family and domestic violence leave.
Support Services
Confidential information, counselling and support for people impacted by domestic and family violence is available at the 1800 RESPECT website, the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.
Cyber Security Week
November’s Australian Cyber Week 2022 was held last month in November from the 14-18. In light of some of the recent high profile data breaches we thought we would share some of the better resources that we found.
Below are some resources to help you assess your cyber security practices and see where some improvements may be possible. Note that these are links to external, third party sites and we don’t accept any liability for the material contained on there.
Cyber Security Assessment Tool: This tool will ask a series of questions about how you manage your cyber security risks and provides a downloadable PDF list of recommendations to action. Have your ABN on hand to get started.
have i been pwned is a free online resource that can be used to quickly assess whether your phone number or email is at risk due to being compromised, or ‘pwned’ in a data breach. You can also opt to be notified if your details are included in a data breach in future. Simply visit https://haveibeenpwned.com/.
What to do if you think you may have been hacked: Take this 2 minute quiz to find out what you should do if you have been hacked or your data has been compromised.
Scamwatch: Scamwatch is run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and provides information to consumers and small businesses about how to recognise, avoid and report scams. Your best defence against scams is to stay up to date with the latest Scamwatch advice and subscribe to Scamwatch for email alerts on the latest scams.
Thinking about investing in crypto assets?
In light of the FTX debacle, we thought that we would share this note from the ATO about ensuring that your crypto investments comply with any super and tax laws where they are held through your own SMSF.
There are many things to consider before deciding to invest in crypto assets so it’s important to get it right. In your role as trustee, you’re ultimately responsible for ensuring the investment complies with the super and tax laws.
Make sure that any advice you receive is from a licenced financial adviser to ensure you are covered by the usual consumer protections and have access to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), should any concerns arise.
For more information, visit https://www.ato.gov.au/Super/Sup/Thinking-about-investing-in-crypto-assets-/
ASIC’s Top 10 Ways to Spot a Crypto Scam
An increased number of Australians have reported crypto-asset (or cryptocurrency) scams to ASIC.
Most crypto ‘investment opportunities’ reported to ASIC appear to be outright scams.
Offenders are difficult to catch, and money lost on bitcoin scams can be tough to recover, especially when offenders operate outside of Australia and all contact has been online.
Read more here.
Christmas Closure
We are closing for the Christmas period from Wednesday 21st December 2022. Our office will reopen with skeleton staff from 9th January 2023, however please note that Sheree will not be available until after her return to the office on the 16th January.
Telephone Update
Our main telephone number is up and running again so please feel free to call through to our team on 07 5501 5765.
If we are not able to attend to your call, please leave a detailed message about what it is you need so that we can get the right member of our team to call you back to assist.
Alternatively, please feel free to send a message to our text line (for SMS messages only) on 0485 868 152.
Need to update your contact details?
Visit our knowledge base for help on how to do this: https://help.thebeegroup.com.au/articles/updating-my-contact-details
Need Help?
The Bee Group Knowledge Base is filled with articles to help you with everyday frequently asked questions:
https://help.thebeegroup.com.au/
Alternatively, you can submit a help request online via our site at:
https://www.thebeegroup.com.au/support/
As always, please reach out to us if you have any questions or queries. We look forward to hearing from you.
Have a great day!
Sheree and 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.
