Our latest insights

Australian manufacturers have been through difficult times, particularly with the shutdown of the automotive industry, but remaining businesses are proving to be agile and resilient having already battled through lots of challenges. In addition, the accelerating pace of new technologies being introduced, combined with COVID-19 disruption and the Government’s substantial industry support, many manufacturing business models have been fundamentally challenged for the better.

On Tuesday 10 May 2022 the Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner handed down his final budget. The 2022-23 Northern Territory budget outlined a $1.1b deficit and net debt of $8.7b, which is an improvement in the forecasting contained within the 2021 Budget which forecasted a 2022/23 deficit of $1.2b and net debt of $10.1b.

Whilst Covid-19 accelerated the growth of online retail, we can expect something of a post-pandemic rebirth of physical stores. Humans are social creatures. We like to interact. To look and feel. To experience.

With so much media coverage and laws focused on paying your people correctly, businesses today are more aware about the potential to have payroll issues.

As the FY22 year-end financial reporting date approaches, we explore some of the important changes, current environmental risks and why it pays to start planning early.

While conflict happens, how you manage it can be the difference between a business (and family) that thrives, and one that becomes destabilised.

With rising supply chain costs and disruptions on a global scale as a result of the pandemic, Australia has been a prime example of resilience by increasing reliance on domestic products to minimise shortages. Although we’ve increased the supply of Australian products, some organisations struggle to compete with global sellers. As supply chains slowly ease back into a pre-pandemic rhythm and import capabilities open back up to their full potential, to compete on a global scale more efficiently, this creates an opportunity to consider where trade policies via tariffs and quotas could be applied to even out the playing field.

The Australian Labor Party (Labor) today announced that, if elected, it will seek to introduce measures to "close tax loopholes exploited by multinational companies".

In this podcast, Kirsten Taylor-Martin and Simon Gow, Partners in the Private Business Tax and Advisory team at Grant Thornton Australia discuss setting up a family office.

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.

A foreign real estate buyer has been penalised $250,000 by the ATO after purchasing Australian residential properties without being authorised by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB). It was found that in addition to owning two established properties that were also in breach, the investor had purchased a further four unauthorised properties.

We have now been through numerous Top 1,000 ATO Taxpayer Reviews and are yet to hear a business state that the process is exactly as they envisaged, or less onerous than anticipated.