What does the 2022/2023 Federal Budget mean for you?

Last night’s budget was a cautious budget. Amid a backdrop of almost full employment, natural disasters, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Treasurer has focussed on Australia’s strong economy and emphasised the need for temporary measures to assist with cost-of-living pressures. Many of the announcements in the budget are adjustments or extensions to existing measures.  

We are pleased to provide you with this brief summary of the main impacts for you, and as always, welcome your questions to our team.

 Individuals

The low…

Helping to make inclusion mainstream

We were delighted to welcome Inclusive Innovations Tasmania and Blind Cricket Tasmania to our office this week to hand over a $1000 donation from our Fundraising Friday program.
WLF Partner Paul Lyons was joined by Phillip ‘Sunny’ Drury, CEO of Inclusive Innovations Tasmania (IIT), Vaughn Bennison, Ambassador for Blind Cricket Tasmania and Ross Copping, Chair of IIT for a chat about the how the donation will assist.
IIT was established in Hobart in 2020, and WLF is very proud to have been working with them from the start. 
“IIT’s vision to develop an inclusive cul…

Take me to your board – NFP podcast series

If you’re involved with governance for a Not-for-Profit entity, either as a Board Director or an Executive, we highly recommend you listen to the ‘Take Me To Your Board’ podcast series from TasCOSS.
Our team at WLF has had the privilege of working with TasCOSS for many years and are strong supporters of their vision for a Tasmania free of inequality and poverty.  As such, we were very proud to have WLF Partner Alicia Leis feature in one of the ‘Take me to your board’ podcasts, where she joins Bridget and Cameron to talk about Risk Management.
Tune into Series 1,…

Welcome to our newest team members

The new year is always a busy time in the WLF office as we welcome the new starters joining us through our Graduate and Undergraduate Accountant Programs.  This year we are delighted to have seven new faces around the office: 

Dylan Bassett, Poppy Nicol and Zara Millwood have all joined the Business and Personal Advisory division
James Wright and James Webb are our newest auditors in the Audit, Assurance and Advisory division
Zoe Bloomfield has also joined the Audit, Assurance and Advisory division, taking up the new role of Group Executive Administrator, and
Candace Hu…

Enhancing superannuation outcomes bill passes

After a marathon sitting of the House of Representatives on Wednesday 9 February that lasted well into the next morning, at 4:56am on Thursday 10 February the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Superannuation Outcomes for Australians and Helping Australian Businesses Invest) Bill 2021 passed the House.
The key superannuation measures in this Bill are:

removal of the $450 income threshold for superannuation guarantee
increasing the amount eligible for release under the First Home Super Save Scheme from $30,000 to $50,000
reducing the downsizer contribution eligibility age …

State Government’s COVID-19 Business Impact Support Program grants

The State Government has established a COVID-19 Business Impact Support Program under Business Tasmania to support businesses around the state whose operations have been impacted due to:

critical staff being required to isolate or quarantine due to COVID-19; or
being forced to close due to a Public Health Direction; or
having suffered a significant reduction in demand.

Grant funding is available where these impacts have resulted in a reduction of turnover between 15 December 2021 and 14 January 2022, subject to the businesses meeting relevant criteria.
For full details o…

Your guide to FBT on staff Christmas celebrations

Have you had your staff Christmas party already?  Or are you looking forward to knocking off early for a festive end of lunch office party on Christmas Eve?
After the celebrations are over and the receipts come in, there are some key tax rules to consider for your financial reporting. Christmas parties and gifts are considered a benefit to employees outside of their salary. As a result, there are Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) implications that can arise where certain factors or thresholds are met.
There are two key things to consider:

The first is called the property benefit…

WLF Accounting & Advisory office hours for Christmas

The WLF Accounting & Advisory office will be closed for the Christmas and New Year period from 12 noon on Friday 24 December 2021.

We will re-open at 8.45am on Tuesday 4 January 2022.

The Partners and team at WLF wish all our valued clients a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful, safe year ahead. We look forward to working with you in 2022….

Farewell and happy retirement Gaylene

On 15 December we said farewell, and happy retirement, to Gaylene Cornelius who has been an integral part of our firm for more than 35 years.

Gaylene started with us in March 1986 and was the first Executive Assistant in Audit. She has played a huge role in the growth and diversification of what is now the Audit, Assurance and Advisory (AAA) division and made up of approximately 30 people, including 6 Partners.

Through her time with us Gaylene has seen incredible change. When she started her role included typing all the firm’s correspondence on a large typewriter, which…

Counting on U, so you can count on us

When you think about ‘lifelong learning’ and professional development in the accounting and advisory sector, what springs to mind? For most people their first thought is probably training in new accounting software or financial reporting and taxation legislative requirements.

These are definitely areas where we focus our professional development. But equally, we want our team members to be progressing their knowledge in many other areas too. We’ve recently introduced a management leadership training program, where we are seeing some great results and positive feedbac…