FBT Year Ends 31 March: Time to Get Your Records Ready

The Fringe Benefits Tax year runs from 1 April to 31 March, which means the current FBT year ends in less than eight weeks. If your business provides any benefits to employees (including yourself as a director), now is the time to gather your records.

What to check now

Vehicle logbooks:

If you started a logbook in January (as we suggested in last month’s newsletter), keep it running until you’ve completed 12 consecutive weeks. If your existing logbook is more than five years old or your travel patterns have changed significantly, you’ll need a new one.

Employee declarations:

For certain benefits, you’ll need signed declarations from employees. This includes “otherwise deductible” declarations for work-related items and living-away-from- home declarations.

Entertainment records:

If you’ve provided meals, events, or entertainment to staff, make sure you have records of who attended, the business purpose, and the costs. The distinction between “entertainment” and “non-entertainment” food affects how it’s treated for FBT.

Expense reimbursements:

Review any reimbursements you’ve made to employees for items that have a private use element. This can include phones, laptops, and home office equipment.

Common FBT-exempt benefits to remember

Not everything triggers FBT. Items that are primarily for work (laptops, phones, tools of trade) are generally exempt. Minor benefits under $300 that are infrequent may also be exempt. Electric vehicles under the luxury car limit remain FBT-exempt, though plug-in hybrids lose this exemption from 1 April 2025.

Key FBT dates coming up

• 31 March 2026: FBT year ends
• 21 May 2026: FBT return and payment due (if self-lodging)
• 25 June 2026: FBT return and payment due (if lodging through an agent)

If you’re unsure whether your business has FBT obligations or need help pulling together your records, get in touch. It’s much easier to sort this out now than in the weeks leading up to lodgement.

Payday Super is Coming: Here’s What You Need to Know

From 1 July 2026, superannuation changes in a big way. If you employ anyone, including yourself as a director, this affects you.

What’s changing

Right now, you pay super quarterly, up to three months after the end of each quarter. From July, you’ll have seven business days after each pay run. That’s it.
I’ll be straight with you. This isn’t a change any of us asked for, and the timing isn’t ideal for business owners already juggling a hundred things. But the legislation
passed Parliament in November 2025, and it’s now law.

We don’t get a say in whether it happens. All we can control is how well we prepare.This change affects 900,000 businesses across Australia. The government sees it as a worker protection measure, addressing the billions in unpaid super sitting in employer bank accounts instead of employee super funds. From your perspective, it means a fundamental shift in how you manage cash flow.

What this means for your business

Pay fortnightly? Super’s due within seven business days of each pay run. Pay monthly? Seven business days after month end. The quarterly buffer you’ve been using to manage cash flow for years is gone.

Your payroll system will need to calculate super at 12% of “Qualifying Earnings” (that’s the new term replacing ordinary time earnings, though for most businesses it
covers the same ground: base pay plus allowances and bonuses). Every time you run payroll through Single Touch Payroll, you’ll report both the earnings and the super you owe. For new team members starting with you, there’s a slightly longer window of around 20 business days while you sort their fund details, but after that it drops back to seven business days.

Why you need to care

Miss the deadline and you’ll cop a Superannuation Guarantee Charge. This includes the unpaid super amount, interest that compounds daily, and administrative penalties that can add up to 60% of the shortfall depending on your history. If you get fund choice wrong, the penalties can be severe.

And here’s the thing that concerns me most for business owners: these penalties aren’t tax deductible. They come straight off your bottom line. The ATO has signalled they’ll take a reasonable approach in the first year if you’re genuinely trying but slip up. But “transitional relief” doesn’t mean “free pass.” You still
need your systems ready.

What to do now (you’ve got 5 months)

1. Check your payroll software

Most major platforms (Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks, KeyPay) have confirmed they’ll be ready. But check with your provider that your current plan includes the Payday Super functionality. Some may require upgrades.

2. Update your employee records

Make sure you have current, validated super fund details for everyone. Stapled super fund queries to the ATO should become part of your onboarding process if they aren’t already.

3. Talk to us about cash flow

This is the big one. If you currently pay $30,000 in super per quarter, you’ll now be paying roughly the same amount, just spread across multiple smaller payments
throughout the quarter. Same total amount, different rhythm entirely. Some businesses will find this easier to manage; others will need to adjust.

Our suggestion: start building a buffer now. Even putting aside a small amount each week between now and July will help take the edge off that first month when the new rhythm hits.

4. Review your payroll timing

Consider whether your current pay cycle makes sense. Some businesses are looking at whether monthly payroll (and therefore monthly super) might be simpler to manage than fortnightly.

Small Business Superannuation Clearing House is shutting down – Here’s what small businesses need to know

What’s changing and when?

The ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) will be closed to new users starting 1 October 2025.

It will fully close and stop servicing existing users on 1 July 2026.

This is part of the wider Payday Super reform, aiming to align super payments with employee paydays

Who’s affected?

The SBSCH currently helps small employers: those with fewer than 20 employees or under $10 million turnover pay all their staff’s super in one go. It’s a free, government run service.

Why it matters

All employee’s super is required to be paid following SuperStream standards. The SBSCH has been a simple, cost-free convenience for many small businesses to meet SuperStream standards. Its closure means an increase in potential costs as you will now be forced to find for an alternative SuperStream compliant clearing houses or payroll software that may charge you fees.

What you should be doing now

Start planning early. Here’s how:

Audit your current setup: do you use the SBSCH?

Explore alternatives: Look at alternatives clearing houses, super fund portals or payroll software that have their own clearing houses.

Update your systems: If your payroll or accounting software handles super contributions, ensure it’s ready and tested your payroll.

Train your team: Ensure any staff involved understand the new process to prevent mistakes or delays.

Pay super more often: If cashflow permits try bringing the super payment forward to get used.

Final things to note

Xero now offers auto super on all their consumer subscription plans making it easy to be SuperStream compliant. Check with your default super fund if they offer a free or low-cost clearing house for you to use.

What is a default super fund?

Every employer must nominate a default superannuation fund. This is the fund that receives super contributions for any employee who has not chosen their own fund and does not have an existing “stapled” fund linked to them.

Government review of supermarket unit pricing: what it could mean for your business

The Federal Government recently wrapped up a consultation on supermarket unit pricing. While it might sound like a purely consumer issue, it could have very real commercial impacts for businesses supplying into the grocery sector.

On 1 September 2025, Treasury opened consultation on strengthening the Retail Grocery Industry (Unit Pricing) Code of Conduct. Submissions closed just a few weeks later on 19 September 2025, marking the end of a very short window for stakeholders to have their say.

A Quick Recap

Unit pricing allows shoppers to compare costs per standard measure (for example, $/100g or $/litre) across different pack sizes and brands.

Since 2009, large supermarkets have been required to display this information to help customers spot value. Compliance costs have generally been low and penalties limited but the Government’s review signals that much tighter rules may be coming.

Why Now?

The ACCC’s recent supermarket inquiry highlighted that while unit pricing is useful, there are still significant gaps.

The key concern is shrinkflation when pack sizes quietly reduce while prices remain the same or even increase.

With cost-of-living pressures dominating headlines, the Government wants clearer, fairer pricing to rebuild consumer trust.

What Might Change?

Proposals considered in the consultation paper include:

Shrinkflation alerts – supermarkets may need to flag when a product’s pack size shrinks without a matching price cut.

Clearer displays – larger, more prominent unit prices both in-store and online.

Wider coverage – expanding the rules beyond major supermarkets to smaller retailers and online sellers.

Standardised measures – eliminating confusing “per roll” vs “per sheet” comparisons.

Civil penalties – introducing fines for non-compliance.

The Commercial Impact

Suppliers: Packaging choices could come under closer scrutiny. Changes in size or format may trigger disclosure obligations.

Retailers: Potential costs in updating shelf labels, in-store signage, software, and e-commerce platforms.

Opportunities: Businesses that embrace transparency can build consumer trust and stand out in a competitive market.

What You Should Do

The consultation period has now closed. Treasury is reviewing submissions, and the Government is expected to announce its response later in the year.

Businesses in food, grocery, and household goods should stay alert. The final rules could affect pricing strategies, packaging decisions, and compliance obligations across the sector.

Keeping on top of these developments will allow your business to adapt early and potentially turn transparency into a competitive advantage.

ATO interest charges are no longer deductible, so what are your options?

As we explained in the July edition of our newsletter, general interest charge (GIC) and shortfall interest charge (SIC) imposed by the ATO are no longer tax-deductible from 1 July 2025. This applies regardless of whether the underlying tax debt relates to past or future income years.

With GIC currently at 11.17%, this is now one of the most expensive forms of finance in the market and unlike in the past, you won’t get a deduction to offset the cost. For many taxpayers, this makes relying on an ATO payment plan a costly strategy.

A couple of options may help alleviate some of the pressure:

Organise an interest payment plan with the ATO (discussed in our September newsletter edition).

Refinancing ATO Debt (discussed below).

Refinancing ATO Debt

Businesses can sometimes refinance tax debts with a bank or other lender. Unlike GIC and SIC amounts, interest on these loans may be deductible for tax purposes, provided the borrowing is connected to business activities.

While tax debts will sometimes relate to income tax or CGT liabilities, remember that interest could also be deductible where the borrowed funds are used to pay other tax debts incurred in the course of running a business, such as:

PAYG instalments

PAYG withholding for employees

However, before taking any action to refinance ATO debt, it is essential to carefully consider whether the interest will in fact be deductible.

Individuals

For individuals with a tax debt, the treatment of interest on borrowings used to pay that debt depends on whether the debt arose from a business activity:

Sole traders: If you are genuinely carrying on a business, interest on borrowings used to pay tax debts from that business is generally deductible.

Employees or investors: If your tax debt relates to salary, wages, rental income, dividends, or other investment income, the interest is not deductible. Refinancing may still reduce the overall cost if the new loan’s interest rate is lower than the GIC, but it won’t generate a tax deduction.

Example:
Sam is a sole trader who runs a café. He borrows $30,000 to pay his tax debt, which arose entirely from his café profits. The interest on the loan should be fully deductible.

However, if Sam also earns salary from a part-time job and some of his tax debt relates to that employment income, only a portion of the interest on the loan will be deductible.

If $20,000 of the tax debt relates to his business and $10,000 relates to his wages, then only two-thirds of the interest expenses would be deductible.

Companies and Trusts

If a company or trust borrows to pay its own tax debts (income tax, GST, PAYG withholding, FBT), the interest is usually deductible because the borrowing is directly related to carrying on the business.

However, if a director or a beneficiary borrows money personally to pay the company’s or trust’s tax debts, the interest they incur is generally not deductible to them personally, the deduction is only available to the entity that incurred the tax liability.

Practical Takeaways

Avoid heavily relying on ATO payment plans as a long-term solution, GIC is now a pure cost.

Seek advice before refinancing ATO debts to ensure any new borrowing is structured in a way that maximises potential deductibility.

Keep records: the ability to trace the borrowing to the underlying business tax debt is crucial.

Consider cash-flow planning earlier in the year to minimise exposure to GIC and SIC.

Paleo, vegan or Proprietary Limited? Let the numbers be your guide

Everybody is different so it should come as no surprise that everybody is different too. We each place different demands on our physiques beyond the whole heart, lungs and brain function imperative – something that came up in a roundabout way earlier last month, we met Chef Pete Evans. We talked through brands and business-building but at some point we drifted onto different ways of eating. Now if you want to set a match to the highly flammable, crude oil of dietary debate, vegan versus paleo is a great place to start. Spice your conversation with the vegetarian option and that should keep things cooking for the whole evening.

The undeniable truth is that it is up to the individual to make their own choice and they themselves will either get to embrace the benefits or deal with the consequences. That doesn’t mean that others don’t get to voice their opinion. Finding the best qualified opinion is the key though and oftentimes the quality of the questions determine the quality of the answers.

So let’s talk about your business

The same could be said of selecting the most appropriate business structure. Think back to your high school maths tests – multiple choice. Is it all coming back to you?

The teachers, the good ones anyway, would explain that out of the 4 alternatives (a,b,c,d) there would be an answer that is just dead wrong. Then there would be one that was wrong but at first glance you could be mistaken for thinking it was right. Finally, you’re left with two answers and frustratingly they would both be correct. However, one of them would be a slightly better answer. Your job, they told us, was to determine “the best” answer. And only that answer would be deemed correct even though technically there was another answer that would still satisfy the equation.

So complicated, but in life and business and diets, you’ll always derive more benefit from the best possible answer – especially over the longer term.

Think about a greater return on savings overtime with the application of compound interest.
Consider the tax savings of a trust or company structure over a sole traders arrangement.
What about the daily benefits to your knees and lower back of walking around in a body that is composed of 10% less body fat.

The benefits of selecting the best possible answer instead of one that simply fits, extend way beyond your high school test scores and into quality of life and business benefits.

So how do I find the best answer?

As I mentioned, sometimes the best answer is a simple but deceptively in-depth question. And here is the question that should be asked by your:

Accountant when talking you through effective (not just viable) business structure options;
Doctor or dietitian when assessing a change in diet; or
Trainer or physiologist when compiling an exercise regime.

“What is the end result you are looking to achieve and why?”

By focusing on the goal, having understood where you’re starting out, a logical map can be plotted between the two points. This is the difference between micro, task-oriented service and bigger picture strategic planning. If followed, you may be pleasantly surprised when you reach that destination and how many more opportunities you can see from that vantage point.

If you have a question about where and how your business is going, just ask us because our goal is to help you to reach yours, for you, your family and your future… and now for that paleo cheesecake and a run.

Concentrate on Concentration: Deliver more value and you’ll earn dollars

You’ve got to spend money to make money. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Save your pennies. These are all well-worn statements that contain more than a grain of common sense. The size of those grains depend on which business sector you operate in and what your priorities and needs are. Here’s one that is 100% true regardless of where you work, for whom or why.

“Change your focus from making money to creating more value and more money will follow as a consequence.”

In other words, the more valuable a product or service becomes in the eyes of the market, the more likely it is that demand will increase without you having to produce more. An example: the black, viscous fluid just beneath the unforgiving Texan terrain was essentially worthless until people realised that it would fuel transportation, industry and manufacturing. Another example: in this country, drinking water is and always was accessible and all but free until the perceived value of bottled water made buying it a near necessity. What about an example from the services side of business? Well, we’re just one of many businesses that find that offering a little extra time to chat with clients about their needs is the incubator of goodwill (on both sides) and of course repeat business.

Great! But how?

Good question and while every circumstance, goal and business is different, there is one thing in common that all paths that lead to success seem to have.

A (strategic) framework.

It sounds very simple but time and time again without a framework that is rigid enough to stop our inner entrepreneur from driving us off the rails yet flexible enough to accommodate adjustments, things get difficult very quickly. So what are we looking at exactly?

Start with your vision, mission and values. What do you want, how will you achieve it and what governs your methodology (what you stand for and what you won’t stand for).
Resourcing. Your assets.
Liabilities. These need to be acknowledged, addressed and limited where possible.

There’s more. Quite a bit more but this is a basic framework checklist mapping how you might choose to deliver value and then deliver more value.

You can’t stick to a framework, or a set of guidelines or an operational plan… if you do not have one so this should be a priority.

Oh, about those distractions…

Here’s a brief and not very exhaustive list:

Novel shortcuts, your competition, the small stuff, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, premature diversification opportunities, shiny things, tax bills that seem a little too large (because they actually might be), regular bills, irregular bills, BAS (see you on the 24th of this month for our webinar), webinars – not related to your goals…

Feel free to add ten more of your own.

Final thought: if you establish the right strategic framework for your business you will find the time and resources to concentrate your value and add value to your life and those of people closest to you.

WARNING: The more things change the more they stay the same unless

Every Friday we just want to stop the world for a moment and give you a couple of real tips to think about that will make a real difference to your business and in your life.

So we’ve reached the end of another week and we are now hip deep into February – already! 2017 is off to a very fast start and if we’re not careful we may become too busy to keep learning and improving our businesses, lives and business lives.

However, there are some things you can change to make sure you don’t fall back into repeating mistakes from years past or simply missing out on the opportunity to build momentum. Alright, some tips, then.

Protect your profits

Profits are like the most endangered species – from a small business perspective of course. As soon as we spot a profit, large or small, we can’t help ourselves – we capture them and then they’re gone. Profits become an instant answer to a short-term operating cost issue; a quick and easy way to make a payment; lunch money – whatever. And then before you know it (or reach the end of the month or the quarter) they’ve vanished. “What happened to my profits? They were right here!”

TIP: Take your profit and set it aside first. That’s the reward for your hard work – keep it safe.

Concentrate on where you add the most value and outsource what you can

Google just informed me that a team of artisan bakers can produce up to 5000 loaves a day. So why would we spend hours of our own time baking bread unless we wanted to? This doesn’t just apply to baking bread it applies to making money too.

If you have some highly sought after skill or product, pour your time into that instead of sacrificing family time or leisure activities.

TIP: Start by outsourcing your bookkeeping and spend more time doing the things that are really important.

Learn how to win at the numbers game

Visiting your accountant can be like watching TV: mildly entertaining if they’re the cheery, chatty type but worst case scenario it can be a bit a like a documentary on erosion without the time-lapse photography. All you’re doing is watching something play out while you sit there. Understanding the numbers is the key to changing all of this. When you “get it”, you’ll become more involved in driving the positive indicators, not just during your visit but most likely, every day. And that’s a good thing.

TIP: Ask your accountant to teach you about what’s going on with your numbers, not just “report” on what’s already happened. You’ll be glad you did.
Okay, the weekend is almost upon us, have another read of this week’s tips on making a change and have a great one.