Mukiwa Digest – 12 June 2020

Welcome back to our Mukiwa Digest – we hope everything is going well for you, your family and your teams.

You haven’t heard from us for a few weeks as there simply hasn’t been much for us to bring you – which is a great sign that some sort of normality is returning. Our team are busy putting in place a plan to return to our Brookvale office in late June/early July. In the meantime we continue to work as a team from our home offices – the great benefit of cloud technology.

This week we focus on EOFY tax planning and the extension to the Instant Asset Writeoff. We also talk about the new HomeBuilder Grant which was recently announced in an effort to support the tradie industry.

If you’re starting to plan for 2021, you may want to take advantage of our free Business Plan template. Be sure to also have a look at the useful links we have provided to help you and your business reopen.

Tax Planning

Steve & Ben have been busy putting in place EOFY Tax Strategies with a number of our business clients.  As part of this process, we are providing new personalised strategies, outlining actionable tax saving scenarios and reminders for our business clients. The feedback to these strategies, and the new reports we are including has been fantastic. So, if you haven’t yet booked in your EOFY tax session, please do so here.

We provided our FY2020 Business and Personal Tax Planning Guides in a previous newsletter. We have recently added these, along with various other ATO Tax Guides and articles to our new FY20 Tax Resources page on our website, which you can access  here.

If you have any questions about your tax or would like to discuss our tax service, please contact us.

Instant Asset Write-Off Extended

This week it was announced that the Instant Asset Write-off has been extended for six months to 31 December 2020. Australian businesses with less than $500 million annual turnover will be able to take advantage of the write-off and invest in assets to support their business. This government initiative is designed to help the economy reopen and boost economic growth. The instant asset write-off applies on a per asset basis, so eligible businesses can immediately write-off multiple assets provided they each cost less than $150,000.

You can find more information on which assets can you claim as an immediate deduction here, or contact us so we can walk you through the different thresholds, exclusions, and limits.

HomeBuilder Grant

Last week more details were announced of the new HomeBuilder grant designed to support the building industry. The $25,000 grant is available to eligible owner-occupiers (including first home buyers) to build a new home or substantially renovate an existing home. You will be able to apply for the HomeBuilder when your state or territory government signs the agreement. Further information will be announced in due course.

Bounce Back With a New Business Plan

While some business owners can already see the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ now, it’s hard to tell how your business will recover and perform when we enter the new normal. With this, it’s best to prepare and put a solid business plan in place for the months ahead , especially those which have been severely hit by the pandemic.

We know that writing a new business plan might be the last thing on your mind right now, as you are trying to keep your business afloat. However, every successful business invests time and effort on business planning. To make it easier for you to create a new one that factors in the risks and implications of the pandemic, we’ve created a FREE downloadable business plan template. Please get in touch if you’d like to talk about your plan – especially the financial parts like cashflow.

Guides to Reopening

As the government is slowly opening up the economy and looking at ways to ease restrictions without compromising public health, it is best to proceed with caution. Here are some useful guidelines to reopening for various industries:

What’s next?

We will be sure to keep you updated if there are any important changes to any of the recent legislations or stimulus packages. Alternatively, if you have a question or concern, please feel free to get in touch with us.

Until then, have a great weekend.

From the Team at Mukiwa