Our latest insights

Conflict in family businesses – in fact, all businesses – is a reality of any workplace. Understanding the source of a conflict, and where tension triggers exist, can help businesses pre-empt, spot and manage clashes and turn these differences into positives.

The ATO has recently announced that they have now re-commenced issuing requests to release excess contributions and other charges for superannuation fund members who did not make an election on how they would like to treat their excess non-concessional contributions for prior financial years.

Professional service firms have experienced growth and increased profitability over the last two years. The issue of succession – promoting, attracting and managing the retirement of equity participants – has never been more challenging.

When it comes to M&A transactions, businesses can often be eligible for GST refunds – but how do you determine if this is the case, and how much is recoverable? In our latest Tax in M&A series, we look at a threshold test that can be applied to transactions whereby businesses only make limited financial supplies. But there is a limit to how much GST can be claimed back when the Financial Acquisitions Threshold (‘FAT’) has been exceeded.

Next generations are itching to take over – the question is are they ready? Future leaders should allow at least three to five years to demonstrate their credibility and develop leadership skills. There are high expectations of the next generation’s business acumen, financial and industry understanding, the ability to lead and inspire, and capability to overcome hurdles. Taking over the family business is a process that often spans across a number of years, and can be separated into succession of management (that is, responsibility and authority), and succession of ownership.

There have been pressure systems gathering momentum along two fronts. Whilst they have largely gone unnoticed by many in the industry, collisions between the two have occurred and left some casualties in the M&A space. Previously, it was regarded by many deal-makers that employer obligations were quite low in risk. However, multiple enforcement agencies are focusing on unpaid employee entitlements and contract hire labour. The uptick in compliance activity has coincided with growth in the M&A space, leading many to believe there are huge levels of unquantified risk in the market – often not covered by warranty and indemnity insurance.

Builders with projects in Queensland who are impacted by the requirement to operate PTAs on each project they undertake should be preparing their business for the administrative burden of managing this additional regulatory compliance.

Director Identification Numbers are coming into Australia. Directors must apply for their own Director ID.

We explore the different market segments in the construction industry during the COVID building boom to better understand the profile of industry participants most likely to feel the sting of continuing supply chain pressure.

The deadline for applications for Director Identification Numbers (DIN’s or Director ID’s) for existing Directors has been set.

Brand Brisbane is rising, boosted by the publicity of their upcoming host gig for the 2032 Olympics and Paralympic Games.

Businesses must reaffirm their decline in TO fortnightly to be eligible for JobSaver payments in NSW.