Print Newsletter

July 2003 Newsletter

Company annual returns have been abolished and replaced with an ASIC "Extract of Particulars" containing information as to the company's annual review date.

The annual review date is the date of incorporation. The ASIC "Extract of Particulars" will be forwarded by the ASIC to be completed and returned together with the standard $200.00 lodgement fee.

Each year a variation form is required to be lodged with the Australian Taxation Office should an employee wish to reduce the PAYG that is deducted from their salary & wage in relation to motor vehicles or rental properties which are negatively geared. These application forms can now be obtained from our internet site.

The current grouping provisions concerning capital gains tax rollovers, and loss transfers will not be available to non-consolidated groups after 1 July 2003.  Accordingly, it is recommended for those entities not intending to consolidate, to review their current group structure to take advantage of the above provisions for the year ended 30 June 2003.

From 1 July 2003, personal income tax has been reduced.  Employers will need to apply the new PAYG withholding rates to employee's salary and wages from 1 July 2003. Copies of the tax tables are available from our internet site or the ATO website at www.ato.gov.au.

A reminder again that the rules for superannuation guarantee have changed from 1 July 2003. 
In summary the changes are:

• Superannuation payments of 9% to be paid at least every quarter.  For the quarter ending 30 September 2003, the cut off date is 28 October 2003
• Report details in writing to the employees of the superannuation contributions made at least once a quarter.  Reporting these details on employee's pay slips will be an effective way to meet this requirement

The ATO has recently sent all employers the annual PAYG Payment Summary Statements and Employees PAYG Payment Summaries for the year. If these documents have not been received please contact our office.

Please ensure the PAYG Annual Payment Summary Statement and the Employees Payment Summaries are reconciled and forward to the ATO by 14 August 2003 to avoid late lodgement penalties.

The new rules apply from 1 July 2002. Details of the new format can be obtained from our internet site.  Dividend statements for the year ended 30 June 2003 will need to be prepared in the new format.  The key features of the legislation are as follows:

• Operation of the franking account on a tax-paid basis.  This will eliminate the conversion adjustments that are currently required on changes to the company tax rate.
• The franking of distributions to the maximum extent possible no longer will be compulsory.
• Introduction of a benchmark rule which will require distributions made by a company in the "same" franking period to be franked to the same extent.  Penalties will apply if this rule is breached.
• A new simplified gross-up and credit system which will apply to all shareholders of a company.  Consequently, corporate shareholders will be treated on the same basis as individual and trustee shareholders.
• For corporate shareholders, the inter-corporate dividend rebate will no longer be available.

www.osr.gov.au is the Office of State Revenues website, which has a calculator to compute stamp duty payable on transactions including purchase of property.

www.asic.gov.au is the Australian Securities and Investment Commissions website. The website provides further details on the changes from 1 July 2003.