Business

Anchor business grants open

Applications are now open for the Large Anchor Business Support Grant Program, to help the Northern Rivers recover from this year’s devastating, widespread floods.

Large businesses crucial to the long-term economic prosperity of the region can now apply for their share of the $44.3 million grants package, funded by the Australian Government.

The program will provide financial assistance to help businesses that employ more than 200 people get back on their feet quickly, increase resilience to natural disasters and help people return to their jobs.

It is a joint initiative of the Australian and NSW Government under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, and comes on top of existing support for small and medium sized businesses.

Minister for Emergency Management, Senator the Hon Murray Watt said supporting the region’s economic recovery is a top priority.

“Large businesses are crucial to the Northern Rivers and employ hundreds of local workers,” Senator Watt said.

“When I visited Lismore this month, I held roundtables with local representatives to discuss the recovery progress.

“We want to help local industry get back to business as soon as possible but also help to future-proof them, by improving resilience to future natural disasters.”

Businesses that have been directly impacted by the floods are invited to submit up to three proposals detailing their recovery needs and how they would use funding in accordance with the program’s objectives.

Applications close on 26 July. More is available at: www.nsw. gov.au/regional-nsw or call 1300 679 673 from 7am-7pm, Monday to Friday.

The ATO is cleaning up dirty laundry

The Australian Taxation Offce (ATO) is warning taxpayers to not engage in ‘asset wash sales’ to artifcially increase their losses and reduce gains or expected gains.

Wash sales are a form of tax avoidance that the ATO is focussed on this tax time.

Wash sales typically involve the disposal of assets such as crypto and shares just before the end of the fnancial year, where after a short period of time, the taxpayer reacquires the same or substantially similar assets. This is a wash sale and is done to create a loss to offset against a gain already derived, or expected to be derived, in certain circumstances, in a tax return.

A wash sale is different from normal buying and selling of assets because it is undertaken for the artifcial purpose of generating a tax beneft for the current fnancial year. The taxpayer disposes of and reacquires the asset for the deliberate purpose of realising a capital gains loss and obtaining an unfair tax beneft.

The ATO’s sophisticated data analytics can identify wash sales through access to data from share registries and crypto asset exchanges. When the ATO identifes this behaviour, the capital loss is rejected, resulting in an even bigger loss to the taxpayer.

Assistant Commissioner Tim Loh urges taxpayers not to engage in this behaviour.

“Don’t hang yourself out to dry by engaging in a wash sale. We want you to count your losses, not have them removed by the ATO.”

The ATO is warning taxpayers who may be engaging in wash sales are at risk of facing swift compliance action and additional tax, interest and penalties may apply. Taxpayers are urged to ignore any advice encouraging a wash sale of any asset.

The clear advice from the ATO is to check the ATO website or check with an independent registered tax professional and not to rely on advice you may receive through media, social media, or advertisements. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

The ATO is also reminding tax advisors who may be promoting wash sales or other tax avoidance activities that they may face action from the Tax Practitioners Board.

The home for tradie licences

NSW tradies can now spend more time getting on with the job, with the full suite of trade licences now digitised and available in the Service NSW app, making it easier than ever to prove they are qualifed when on a work site.

Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government Victor Dominello said about 25,000 physical trade licences are replaced each year which meant these tradies were unable to easily prove their right to be on a worksite when required for up to two weeks while their card was replaced.

“The Digital High Risk Work Licence joins the Digital Qualifed Supervisor and Tradesperson Certifcates, the Digital Contractor Licence (Individual) and the Digital White Card,” Mr Dominello said.

“The Digital High Risk Work licence is a free, optional addition to the physical card and is available to more than 385,000 licence holders across all 29 classes, including cranes, forklifts and scaffolding.

“Digital trade licences in the Service NSW app have multiple features which confrm they are authentic and up-to-date, providing site supervisors with a convenient way to check a card’s details. This includes an animated NSW Government logo, auto-refreshing date and time, QR code which expires and reloads and a Waratah hologram.”

While physical cards are still currently required, the digital licence can take the pressure off tradespeople when they frst realise it is missing while they organise for a new card to be replaced.