December 2010 Newsletter

 

Where has 2010 gone! Another very busy and successful year is coming to a close. This is our annual newsletter to advise you the team from FATS will be having a short break for the upcoming festive season.

Our office will be closed from 5pm Thursday 23rd December 2010 to 9am Wednesday 12th January 2011 inclusive. We will all be back, energised and refreshed for another exciting year.

We are celebrating 15 years in business and I would like to thank the dedicated accounting team Terry, Jaimee, John, Bob and our newest accountant team member Andy; together with our fabulous support staff Anna, Anita, Reen, Belinda and the newest member of the FATS admin team Michelle. I would also like to extend my thanks to our auditor John Hughes for his work with us this year.

A lot has happened over the past year and some highlights include developing our new website which should be ready for the new year. We will be in touch when we are ready to launch! It has taken a while as we have been building a much more comprehensive, user friendly site which you will be able to search for online calculators, links to a number of government departments and a link to our sister company FinancialEthix in which we will be launching this new website at the same time.

We have also been a regular contributor with Peninsula Living magazine, writing about various tax and accounting issues. If you haven’t seen our latest articles you will be able to view all the back issues once we launch the new website.

 

2010 Northern Beaches Local Business Awards - Winners for Most Outstanding Professional Services We are winners!!! Thank you to all of our wonderful clients who voted for us, for your loyalty and support. We are proud to announce we took out the category for Most Outstanding Professional Services. It is a great honour and this award endorses our unique and specialised services. We are able to assist not only with all of your accounting and taxation needs but also with risk insurance and estate planning. We look forward to continue to provide you with this high level of service. Anita from our office was also a finalist in the Most Outstanding Youth category. We also achieved the accolade of being the #1 Firm in Australia with the Count GPS group to have the most new entity set ups. We are again very proud of our numerous achievements this year. Giving Back to the Community In August we held a very successful movie charity night with the proceeds going to the Oncology Children’s Foundation. Charles Dennis from OCF spoke briefly about the amazing, wonderful and ongoing research the Foundation is carrying out. We are proud to announce our generous donation of $2000 was presented to Charles on the night. At FATS we have also started up a trust fund for a local young boy named Isaac. Isaac is 2 years old and is deaf. We have helped Isaac to have his operation to enable him to hear again. Quick Newsflash: Isaac is going great after the operation and so far all is looking good for his future! New Services Coming Up • Law Central: buying agreements and basic legal documents via the   web once our new website is launched in early 2011 •  Audit Insurances: to protect you from any general audits and    associated costs •  Bookkeeping Services: with a management style to help make your    lifestyle easier and give you better and quicker reporting standards		Business Side of the News, and Information for you to Think About Superfund Returns Most superfund returns are due for lodgement by end of February 2011. For those who have not dropped in their work, please do so NO LATER than mid to end of January 2011, otherwise our time to prepare will be limited and will conflict with the 2nd BAS/IAS preparation deadlines. Individual/Company/Partnership and Trust Returns The ATO this year is again cracking down on overdue income tax returns. For anyone that has 1 or more years outstanding your returns are now OVERDUE and fines are being imposed for late lodgement by the ATO. We urge you to get your outstanding work papers to us so that we can fast track and assist in getting these lodged with the ATO. Correspondence from the ATO and our firm has been sent to clients that we are aware of with outstanding lodgements. Outstanding Activity Statements We have been informed by the ATO of clients with outstanding activity statements and we have sent a letter to those clients. If you would like us to assist in the preparation and lodgement of these please send your work to us as soon as possible and we can only stress again the ATO is imposing late lodgement fines. ATO Payments All ATO payments (e.g. PAYG, BAS, IAS to mention a few) for the quarter ending 31st December 2010 are due by late February 2011. If you want us to assist in any ATO preparations, we must have your work in by no later than the end of January 20101 otherwise delays and fines may occur. Insurances Many clients still do not have their correct insurances in place for example workers compensation, public liability and the like. If you have any queries or need assistance please contact us and we will guide you in the right area. Land Tax Land tax is assessed as at 31st December of each year for non-residential related properties, however some exemptions do apply. Assessments and payments are due around February of each year. Please contact us should you require further assistance on this matter. Visit www.osr.nsw.gov.au  Important Upcoming Lodgement Dates and Details • Late February: 2nd BAS/IAS lodgements and payments due • Late February: some company tax payments due • Feb/March: superfund tax returns due • March: fringe benefits update due • March to June: periodical accounting and tax planning reviews for the   year ending 2010. Please register your interest by calling 9975 6155 or   emailing us at tax@forestaccounting.com.au • Late April: 3rd BAS/IAS lodgements and payments due • Late July: 4th BAS/IAS lodgements and payments due • Mid August: PAYG certificates and PAYG reconciliations due to be   lodged with the ATO. Note the ATO is now imposing fines for late   lodgements. • Monthly or quarterly super must be paid at least on a quarterly basis or   fines will apply. Consider paying your super at the same time as your   BAS/IAS lodgements and payments. A Super levy of 9% (minimum) on   basic wages is to be paid to a complying superfund. If you are not sure   what a complying superfund is, then please call Terry on 9975 6155.
FinancialEthix Group News What a busy year we’ve had with our financial planning side of the firm. FinancialEthix Group can assist you with the all-important Risk and Estate planning issues required. These include Income Protection, Live Insurance, and Trauma Insurance, Total Permanent Disability Insurance, Estate Planning cover, Superannuation and retirement issues. We can assist you with a basic will if you haven’t already got one established. If you would like further information on any of these issues please feel free to contact Terry on 9975 6155 for a complimentary half hour discussion. Also FinancialEthix will be launching it’s brand new website in the new year. We will announce this launch as soon as possible as we are excited to present you with a functional site which will thoroughly assist you with many issues regarding your financial health. Risk Insurance – Are your insurances tax effective? Andrew has written a brief article on this topic coming up in the January 2011 Peninsula Living magazine. Please have a look at this at www.peninsulaliving.com.au Income Protection It can pay a proportion of your salary for a while if you’re temporarily unable to work because of sickness or injury. The length of time you receive payments depends on the contract term; for example two years, five years, or up to age 60 or 65; it varies depending upon the amount of cover you are willing to pay for. Life Insurance Relates to anyone that depends on you financially. If you were no longer there to provide for your family, the financial implications for them could be considerable. This paid out as a lump sum benefit and could be paid to your family to help them manage major household debts such as the mortgage, car repayments or education costs for your children. Trauma Insurance Can take the pressure off, so you can spend your time focusing on recovering – not worrying about your finances! Trauma insurance is a great financial back-up plan for your lifestyle. Trauma insurance pays you a one-off lump sum if you have a serious medical condition (like cancer, heart attack, stroke or an accident). You could use the benefit to: -    cover your out-of-pocket treatment costs – or afford the best treatment available! -    make lifestyle changes so you can focus on healing – like permanently reducing the number of days you work. Total Permanent Disability Relates to illness because of a sickness or injury, in which you are unable to work in your own or any occupation. It comes into effect if you have a total and permanent disability such as the loss of two of: eyes, arms or legs. Estate planning Encompasses: • The preparation of a will – this is only half the battle, are you failing to consider business structures? • Appointing an executor of the will • Determining whether a power of attorney is required and who should be appointed in that role • Establishing a discretionary trust(s) Consideration of an estate plan depends upon whether: • You have sizable assets and the personal circumstances of your beneficiaries require the creation of more complex trusts within your will • You have vulnerable beneficiaries with special needs • Your investment or business structures are complex and may include a family discretionary trust, a self managed superannuation fund or a private   company • You wish to minimise the tax liability of your estate or your beneficiaries, for example via superannuation or testamentary trusts. Estate planning advice will help you to decide whether you require the preparation of a more complex will incorporating testamentary discretionary trusts, amendments to your family trust deed or self managed superannuation fund and a formal estate planning strategy document. JIVVE For those of you that aren’t aware we are able to offer our clients an exclusive car buying service through Jivve. Jivve is able to source new cars around Australia and at the same time offer superior service to you our clients. We have already had a number of clients using this service, and the feedback from them are comments such as taking the worry out of having to drive all over town to get the best deal, dealer was really easy to deal with and they arranged for us to have a test drive at our convenience. Another comment was the ease in arranging delivery of their new car; the dealer came and delivered directly to them. If you would like any further information or are in the market to get a new car, please contact Anna at Forest Accounting at anna@forestaccounting.com.au or phone us on 02 9975 6155. When we launch the new website in early 2011, we will have information available for Jivve online. From the team at FATS we hope you have an enjoyable and relaxing festive season, and we look forward to providing you with our continued excellent services in 2011!
Company Partnership & Business Taxation* Trust & Superannuation Taxation Services * Bank Liaison, Cash Flow & Budgeting Advice * Property & Asset * Gearing & Advice * Business Set Up & Development Advice * Software Set Up & Training * Motor Vehicle & Equipment Finance * Commercial & Residential Lending * BAS Assistance, Preparation & Advice Office 4 Russell Avenue, Frenchs Forest NSW 2086 - Tel: 02 9975 6155 - Fax: 02 9975 5966 - Email: tax@forestaccounting.com.au Important: This newsletter does not represent formal advice in any way but rather a helpful guide and is for the private consumption of our clients. Contents of this newsletter herein are in general nature and are issued as a guide for our clients only. We recommend that clients seek formal advice before acting on any of the abovementioned issues within this newsletter. The content of the newsletter remains the property of Forest Accounting & Taxation Services Pty Ltd and shall not be reproduced or made available to any 3rd party without consent.