Welcome to the July edition of our Newsletter.
The new financial year is now upon us, and I hope some of you spent the time to do some tax planning and think about how the new financial year might look for you.
The new financial year sees a step up in the maximum amount you can contribute to super through concessional contributions, increasing from $27,500 to $30,000. Employer superannuation contributions also increase by half of one percent to 11.5%.
The much-debated tax cuts start as of yesterday with the rates reducing throughout the thresholds and the top threshold being lifted from $180,000 to $190,000. This will see take home pays increase between $354 for workers on $30,000 per annum up to $4529 for workers earning $190,000 or above.
The $300 energy rebate will commence with a $75 rebate being applied to quarterly power bills for the year. There are also changes to the minimum wage, certain social services payments have been slightly increased and paid parental leave has been extended by a further ten days, such that 22 weeks of paid parental leave can now be accessed.
In this month’s newsletter we have articles that touch on government changes to try and address SMS initiated fraud as well as an article on record keeping requirements of the ATO. We also look at the changing landscape of custody battled in the Family Law area. Recent changes have disposed of the presumption that parents should care for their children equally; it will be interesting to watch how that plays out in its application. Hopefully the Courts will apply the change thoughtfully and respectfully and not see parties ‘weaponise’ the loss of the presumption for personal advantage, with disregard for the benefit and welfare of the children.
The rains have come with more significance in the last few weeks and I understand most of our Eyre Peninsula clients have benefitted from good recent rains. As always, I am hoping this important industry for this State and the Nation generally will have the follow up rains they need throughout the remainder of winter and into spring to ensure a bumper harvest for all.
I trust you will enjoy this months’ newsletter and I hope you have a great month of July, enjoy cozy loungerooms and good bottles of red and I am looking forward to August when I will be travelling to Cleve for the biennial field days, which I look forward to.
I hope you all have a healthy, happy and successful July; as always if you have any questions or concerns in areas where we may be able to assist, feel free to give us a call, as we say… we’re here to help!
Please telephone our main office number on (08) 8231 6100 or email reception@ezralegal.com.au.
For information on the range of legal advice and services that we provide, head to:
Michael Fabbro
Practice Principal
Ezra Legal