The Business Basics grant program provides support to businesses to increase core skills and adopt best practice. This round of Business Basics (Round 6) is focused on business enhancement. The program is administered by the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training (DESBT).

This program is applicable for businesses with less than 5 employees and a turnover of less than $300,000. With increased funding to $7500, start planning your registration of interest in the latest round of small business grants, Business Basics.  Applicants can apply for funding for grant funded activities under the following priorities:

• Professional business advice
• Strategic marketing services
• Website build and upgrades.

Opening Date: Registration of Interest (ROI) opens at 9am, Monday 30 September 2024.

Closing Date: Stage 1: Registration of Interest (ROI) closes at 5pm, Friday 11 October 2024

Access to supporting documentation and eligibility criteria is available on the Queensland Government Business website.

Please reach out to the team at MGI, if you need support in preparing your application.

August 16th, 2024 kicked off the Hoops4School Challenge to take aim at the urgent issue of education disengagement in Australia. For 20 days, participants were sinking hoops daily to spotlight the 20% of teenagers disengaged from mainstream education.

As part of the fundraising activities over August through to September, team members from MGI, including Antonio, Gavin, Nick and Jemma, had the pleasure to get involved and show support in the Hoops4Schools Corporate Challenge held at Coomera Indoor Sports Centre to also raise money for The BUSY Schools program. The BUSY School is part of The BUSY Group which was formed initially to provide Apprenticeships support services to businesses across Queensland.

With the group continually growing to offer a range of additional services, The BUSY School started opening campuses in 2019, offering an alternative, supportive and innovative approach to education. Their initiative is to help transform the lives of year 11-12 students who have become disengaged from traditional education and support them to reengage, complete their QCE and find a career pathway. They now have 9 campuses in total across the south-east including Cairns. We were proud to get involved in the round-robin team corporate challenge and help fundraise for such an important cause. There was over 120 corporate attendees and students participating across 16 teams and MGI and CoAct finished a credible 3rd place overall.

This year, the Busy Schools goal has been to enlist over 1,000 participants and raise $80,000 for The BUSY School. The funds raised through the year including the Corporate Challenge will support students, staff, and programs for alternative learning solutions, expanding engagement in communities across Australia.

From 1 July 2024, non-charitable not-for-profit entities with an active Australian Business Number (ABN) that want to access an income tax exemption are required to lodge an annual self-review return.

The new rules and their application seem to be causing a lot of confusion, so it’s worth noting who IS NOT required to report under the new rules. Entities that are not required to report include:

• Charities registered with the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission cannot self-assess, therefore, are not captured by these new reporting requirements. This would include for example, the Active Surf Clubs and RSL Sub Branches
• Entities that are taxable, but their income is wholly or partially exempt because of the principal of mutuality, for example, the Supporters of Surf Clubs and RSL Memorial Clubs.

We understand you may require some assistance navigating this new regime in the first year, so please do not hesitate to contact our tax team if you have questions or concerns over your requirement to lodge, or assistance with lodgement of you are required to lodge an annual self-review return.

For small businesses to enhance their efficiency and productivity.

This support includes funded activities in 3 project areas:

• Future planning
• Specialised and automated software
• Planning and systems for staff management and development.

Available Funding:

• $10,000 – $20,000 excluding GST
• Applicants to contribute an equal amount to the funding requested

Stage 1 is open (registration of interest)

Closes on Friday 5^th of July at 5.00pm

More information on eligibility and the application process can be found here.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to MGI if you have any questions or need assistance to complete the application.

At the recent 2024 Australian Accounting Awards, MGI Australasia was awarded the Network of the Year Award for our outstanding commitment to supporting our clients in achieving ‘Success Your Way’.

As a proud member of the MGI Australasia network, spanning across Australia and New Zealand, MGI South Queensland’s involvement in this network makes us a stronger firm, allowing us to work with fellow member firms to ensure we are at the forefront of our knowledge and understanding of the latest changes to our industry. This allows us to continue to provide accurate and expert advice to our clients. Our involvement in this network also allows us to provide training and development to our team, so we can continue the incredible work of MGI South Queensland for years to come.

Some other benefits within the MGI Australasia network include; The Graduate Academy, MGI Australasia Future Leaders Conference, MGI Australasia Leaders Conference, MGI Australasia Tax Seminar, MGI Australasia Annual Conference, plus our sub-committees and our connection to the MGI Worldwide International Network.

The value of membership with MGI Australasia extends to the entire teams of all the member firms, allowing them to feel connected to other like-minded professionals across Australia and New Zealand as well as around the world.

We would like to thank all of our clients and staff for your support. We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved as a network and we look forward to continuing to build on our offering and continuing to support you in achieving your success. Also, thank you to Accountants Daily, the judging panel for this prestigious award.

Launched by The Department of Industry, Science and Resources, participants in the Industry Growth Program Advisory Service may apply for Commonwealth Commercialisation and Growth Grants to support specific commercialisation and/or growth projects. The commercialisation and growth stages may include developing marketplace strategies for entry to market, accelerating growth and scaling up into national and international markets.

Grant Opportunities are open for SME’s to apply for grants of $100,000 to $5,000,000 to support commercialisation and growth. To be eligible you must:

• have a combined annual turnover of less than $20 million for each of the three financial years prior to the lodgement of the application
• have received a report through the program’s Advisory Service
• own or have access to any Intellectual Property (IP) you need to undertake your commercialisation and growth project and own or have the exclusive right to commercialise any IP generated from it
• can provide evidence of your ability to fund at least your share of eligible project expenditure, such as funding strategy and a bank statement or loan agreement. You must provide an accountant declaration that confirms your ability to fund the project.

Eligibility and instructions on how to apply can be found on the Australian Government’s Grant Connect website.

Please contact the team at MGI if you have any questions or require further information.

Launched by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, the objective of the early-stage commercialisation grants is to help businesses to undertake the steps necessary to establish the commercialise viability of an innovative product, process or service, including steps to undertake feasibility and proof-of-concept through to prototyping.

These Early-Stage Commercialisation grants can be used to undertake projects and business activities that progress a business toward the following outcomes:

• improve the commercialisation capabilities of participating businesses
• further develop innovative products, processes or services in preparation for commercialisation (e.g. prototypes, early testing)
• improve capability to seek and attract investment for the participating business.

SME’s can apply for grants of $50,000 to $250,000 to support early-stage commercialisation projects.

Eligibility and instructions on how to apply can be found on the Australian Government’s Grant Connect website.

Please contact the team at MGI if you have any questions or require further information.

The Business Growth Fund Program (BGF) targets high-growth businesses who can accelerate growth, drive Queensland’s economy and employ more Queenslanders. The program is administered by the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training (DESBT).

Eligible Business Size?

Small and medium-sized businesses that employ 5-49 people (headcount).

Interested businesses will be invited to submit an expression of interest from 9am on Wednesday 1 May.

Businesses with high-growth plans should review the guidelines and eligibility criteria for the upcoming round of the Business Growth Fund program.

This program offers grants of $50,000 to $75,000 to support the purchase of specialised equipment as a co-contribution with eligible businesses.

Successfully funded businesses are expected to:

• increase confidence for growth, transitioning from small to medium-sized
• increase productivity, turnover, profit and/or employment by 20%
• improve confidence to automate, scale up, increase market share, diversify and/or exploit exporting opportunities.

Expressions of Interest (EOI) are now open.

The application process involved 3 stages:

• Stage 1 – Expression of interest (EOI)
• Stage 2 – Full application
• Stage 3 – Pitch

Expressions of Interest close: 5pm Tuesday 14 May 2024.

Please contact the team at MGI if you have any questions or require further information.

Following on from our post a couple of months ago about tax and superannuation deadlines the following are the upcoming contribution cap and superannuation changes.

1. Contributions – cap increase

From 1 July 2024 a number of rates and thresholds will increase, including the contribution caps. There has been no further indexing of the transfer balance cap so there will be changes to the eligibility to use the 3 year bring forward non-concessional contributions (see table below).

A reminder to review any salary sacrifice agreements to avoid excess concessional contributions with the increase in super guarantee to 11.5% from 1 July 2024.

2. Defined benefit interest (CSS/PSS) calculation for Division 296 – in relation to superannuation balances above $3million

From 1 July 2025 tax concessions will be reduced for certain earnings for superannuation balances above $3 million. On 28 February 2023, the Australian Government announced from 1 July 2025 a 30% concessional tax rate will be applied to future earnings for superannuation balances above $3 million, known as Division 296.

If you are wondering how the balance of your CSS or PSS pension will be calculated for the purposes of the proposed Division 296 tax you will need to wait a little longer.

While draft legislation has been released, the calculations for determining the balance of defined pensions will be contained in the regulations which no one has seen (or possible written).

3. Reminder about the changes in Small Business Super Clearing House

From 15 March 2024, the ATO will introduce SMSF bank account validation in the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH). This will require any small employer using the SBSCH to ensure that their employees’ SMSF bank accounts match the bank account details registered with the ATO for contributions.

If you are receiving contributions via SBSCH or using the SBSCH to pay employer contributions, it is important to contact employees to confirm that the SMSF bank account that superannuation contributions are paid to, is the same as the SMSF bank account registered against the superannuation role, with the ATO. A mismatch will mean that their superannuation contributions can’t be processed through the SBSCH.

This also applies for any member roll-in and roll-out requests.

Please contact us if you need to check the details of the bank account registered with the ATO for your SMSF.

Proactive steps are essential to ensure any SG obligations for the March 2024 quarter can be met by 28 April 2024.

4. Non-Arm’s Length Income/Expense (NALI/NALE) Bill Passed Through Parliament

An important reminder to the trustees and the members of the fund, that NALI/NALE bill has now passed through both houses of Parliament and it is essential to review all general expenses incurred/not-incurred within the fund.

It is crucial to understand and review transactions within the superfund that there is no expenditure at non-arm’s length that will trigger the rules concerning non-arm’s length income.

This rule specifically dives into general expenses such as discounted accounting or adviser fees, legal fees or any other general expenses which are non-arm’s length.

If you have any queries or concerns or need further advice and support about superannuation changes please don’t hesitate to reach out to the team at MGI.