Turn your New Year Resolution into a New Year Revolution

Welcome 2010. Goodbye 2009.

Whether you sailed through the GFC or struggled to survive during 2009, the start of a new year is always a good time psychologically to begin a new approach to your business. Don’t just keep on doing the same things and hoping for a better result. Make a resolution to revolutionise your business. Take all of the things in your business that are bad, and throw them out. Take all of the good things and create rules and systems to ensure that these are done more often.

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New workplace rules apply from 1 January 2010

The new workplace legislation The Fair Work Act 2009 comes into effect from 1 January 2010. Some of the main changes that employers should be aware of include National Employment Standards (NES), Fair Work Information Statement and the transition to Modern Awards.

The following article has been copied form the government’s Fair Work website.

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Tax Office Does Back Door Audits

In an interesting case recently, the ATO charged a taxpayer (not one of our clients, we hasten to add) $115,953 tax and penalties for failing to declare $142,000 of income – an effective tax rate of 81.65% !!

The taxpayer was a Melbourne-based concretor who had declared very low levels of income for a number of years. The ATO statistical analysis systems selected the taxpayer because his results were outside the industry averages.

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Will your insurance be an accident?

Recently, there has been an increase in organisations selling life insurance over the phone, TV, through the post and internet. This supposed “convenience” can lead to devastation at claim-time. We look into some common mistakes people make when purchasing insurance cover.

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Don't kill off your super when  you die

On death, the most common practice is for the deceased’s accumulated benefits to be paid out to the nominated beneficiaries, or (in the absence of any nominated beneficiaries) to the deceased’s estate.

Depending on the circumstances of the beneficiaries, this could be a big mistake. Because superannuation is so tax-efficient, the government has put major restrictions on how much you can get into super.

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For Love or Money

Here’s an unfortunate case study. Brad had run his own cafe for a number of years when he started having trouble paying the bills.

He asked his parents, Jan and Michael, to sign a mortgage over their family home to provide him with a bank overdraft. Within a year Brad’s business had gone under and the bank sold the parents' home to recoup their investment.

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Prime Partners 'get physical'!

Since our last newsletter, the team at Prime Partners decided to 'get physical' for a good cause! On Sunday 27th September we took part in the 2009 Spring Cycle from North Sydney to Olympic Park. James Carey, Min Chang, Geoff Power, Christina Papas and Evy Hatzigiannis (pictured left) along with Greg & Luke Dunstan, Steve McCosker, Karen Power and Kim Chang did us proud with their fantastic effort on the day and those around the office that didn't take part in the ride showed their support with generous donations. The event raised money for the MS Society and Oncology Children's Foundation and we were honoured to be able to contribute to such worthy causes.

Congratulations to Maria Zarminian on her recent Engagement to her partner Oshin! We wish them both all the best as they prepare to spend their lives together.

We also extend a warm Prime Partners welcome to the newest member of our team, Linda Boyagi. Linda has recently joined our Accounting Team and we are excited to have her on board.

Important Dates