With the Federal Budget being released next week, many are speculating that the Government will be cracking down on business concessions with thin capitalisation rules being targeted. The rules which affect large, multinational companies may have unintended consequences for small businesses. For example, if a big business is forced to downsize it could hit smaller…
Official inflation figures released for the March quarter show consumer prices for goods and services remain under control. The inflation figure from the Bureau of Statistics came in at 0.4 per cent, with the annual rate of consumer price increases at 2.5 per cent, slightly up from the 2.2 per cent level in the previous…
The Reserve Bank has warned it may have to cut interest rates in order to ‘counterbalance the pressures’ of the strong Australian dollar according to a senior official at the RBA. However, the RBA shed doubt on whether it would intervene in a ‘somewhat’ overvalued dollar by selling the currency, and would instead look at…
Australian businesses have lost $373 million dollars due to major fraud in the past 2 years, a three-fold increase in the past 15 years, yet are lagging behind addressing fraudulent behaviour as a serious issue. There has also been an 82% increase in individual cases of fraud exceeding $1 million, with the finance sector hit…
The Tax Institute has put forward a number of suggestions to the Federal Government in its 2013 budget submission paper. Among the suggestions are reforms in state tax, calls for a new small business entity and tax deductions for childcare. One of the key proposals is to make childcare costs fully tax deductible, as opposed…