The federal government is proposing legislation that, if passed, will increase the Paid Parental Leave ('Leave') to 26 weeks by 2026: The proposal is to increase the current 20 weeks Leave (for children born or adopted after 1 July, 2023) by 2 week increments each Financial Year for the next 3 Years There is an eligibility criteria to receive the payment, including: Income Test | Work Test | Residency Rules Incorporating Leave payments into your Financial Plan may be critica...

The Australian Tax Office ('ATO') has provided their 'guidance' on the application of the Luxury Car Tax ('LCT') for vehicles, based on its principal purpose: Generally 'commercial' vehicles such as utes with a load capacity of 1 ton or more were considered commercial and therefore not subject to LCT The ATO now wants to know more about the vehicle's principal purpose rather than its type before determining if the vehicle is subject to the LCT...

Presently, if you are aged between 67 and 74 you are required to satisfy the 'work test' before making certain superannuation contributions.  But from 1 July, 2022 the laws have changed and under certain circumstances you will be able to make some types of superannuation contributions without having to satisfy the 'work test'.

To meet the 'work test', depending on your age, the person must be gainfully employed for at least 40 hours during a consecutive 30-day pe...

Self Managed Super Fund (SMSF) laws have recently been amended to increase the maximum number of members in the fund.

A SMSF can now have up to 6 members.  Previously, the laws only allowed a SMSF to have up to 4 members, which was sometimes limiting for larger families that had more than 2 children.  The laws do not restrict members of a SMSF to immediate family, which may be convenient for persons wanting to pool their assets for retirement and have a higher level ...

Unfortunately, this was not a very exciting federal budget .... boring .... yawn-fest.  There are only a few key individual measures worth noting (all the rest is pretty much inconsequential to the majority of us): Low and Middle Income Tax Offset will increase by $420 in this current 2022 FY One-off $250 payment for Social Security payment recipients – including pensioners Single Paid Parental Leave scheme of up to 20 weeks paid leave Home Guarantee Scheme increase to 50,000 ...