Bluebird News

Even in this strange year, the last few months have been quite an experience. At Bluebird, we’ve been working closely with many of you as we navigate all that has been 2020. For us, this has meant providing general tax advice, JobKeeper assistance, helping with compliance needs and often simply providing a human connection for our clients.

The trust you place in us is a huge privilege. We are honoured to be able to help our business clients worked their way through one of the most challenging and difficult years for businesses both financially and emotionally.

It’s become clear that the smaller businesses are in greatest need of support. In response, our team has been undergoing extensive planning and development to assist in areas to provide comfort and security to business owners.

We have also been grateful for our individual clients. You have all provided our team with a human connection. We’ve found empathy, inspiration and energy from your stories and connections. Your honesty and willingness to share your worries has helped us to adapt our processes to best support you all. Thank you.

We are now more determined than ever to help you achieve financial happiness and move forward in the strongest way possible.

So what’s been happening in the accounting world?

We've had a smooth transition into JobKeeper 2.0 for our client assessment and enrolment. Declarations for the first payment have now been completed. 

In the recent Federal Budget  there were some key measures announced:

JobMaker Scheme

We started with JobKeeper, then we had JobSeeker and now we’re up to JobMaker, pretty much sums up 2020. This is the Federal Government's latest initiative to try and boost employment. It’ll provide eligible employees with $200 a week for each new eligible employee aged between 16 and 29 years and $100 a week for eligible employees aged 30 to 35 years. This scheme began on 7 October 2020 and will run until 6 October 2021.

Tax updates for individuals

You may have already seen a few extra dollars in your net pay each pay period as a result of:

• Tax reduction: from 1 July 2020 the 19% tax bracket will increase from $37,000 to $45,000 and the 32.5% tax bracket will increase from $90,000 to $120,000.
• Low-income tax offset: from 1 July 2020 this offset will increase from $445 to $700LMITO: the low and middle-income earners will receive a one-off additional benefit up to $1080 from the low-to-middle income tax offset for 2020-2021.
• There has been a targeted capital gains tax exemption for granny flat arrangements where there is a formal written agreement in place. 

Tax updates for Businesses

There were a number of important tax updates announced in the budget. These included:

Instant asset write-off: for businesses with turnover up to $5 billion they will be able to instantly write off the full cost of eligible asset purchases until 30 June 2022.

Tax losses: companies with a turnover of up to $5 billion will temporarily be able to offset tax losses against previous profits on which tax has been paid.

Small business depreciation pools may have up to 30 June 2022 to write-off their entire balances.

Working from home

For individual clients working from home, please make sure you are taking record of the average hours worked per week plus computer, stationery, internet, mobile phone and other costs you may incur for work. We can easily calculate the best claim for you at tax time. 

Like most of you, we are also working from home. Face-to-face appointments are still not permitted and we are following State Government guidelines. For the foreseeable future, our physical office will remain closed.

Working from home definitely has its perks - less driving, more productivity, comfier shoes. On the other hand, finding a work/life balance can be challenging. We have been finding ways to switch off and create healthy habits to remain the best versions of ourselves.

If something captured your eye in this update please shot out and we can provide some additional support and information. Likewise, if there is something that you would like to see in our updates we would love your feedback.

Wishing you all a wonderful month.

Until next time, stay safe

 Liz, Julian & the Bluebird team


Please note: Many of the comments in this email are general in nature.
If you intend to apply this information to your own circumstances, you
should contact us to verify how it can be applied in your particular
case.


Bluebird Accounting is a CPA Practice
166A Pascoe Vale Road, Moonee Ponds VIC 3039
PO Pox 798 Moonee Ponds VIC 3039
(03) 99993230

Liability Limited by a Scheme approved under professional standards legislation