The Optus data breach is top of mind for a lot of Australians, particularly those who have had their data breached.
For business, the breach is a timely warning on the importance
of understanding what data is held on your customers (and should you hold it?), how it is secured, how your systems work and the process to
identify gaps and deficiencies, the appropriate actions if and when a breach occurs, and the impact on your relationship to your customer.
This is not something that can be outsourced to IT but a whole of business issue.
Falling behind on your BAS lodgements looks like an administrative problem. Left long enough, it becomes an expensive one, because the GST you collected stays payable indefinitely while the GST credits you are owed disappear after four years. Here is what that looks like in dollars.
With negative gearing now quarantined for established dwellings, new house and land has become the sensible play for investors — but there is a trap in the first eighteen months. Interest on the land is denied, while interest on the construction is not. If the bank has written one loan, someone has to do the sums. Here is why it pays to split the loan before you sign.
When the draft legislation for the trust minimum tax was released, it came with a reassurance: if you do not want to restructure, you can simply make an election instead — no restructure, and no state stamp duty. That is accurate, but it is also a very small part of the decision. Here is why you should choose your structure for the eventual sale of your business, not for the announcement.
