What's changed for small business in 2017

As a small business owner you’ll know how important it is to be aware of rules and regulations that affect your business.

Keep yourself and your staff informed! Do you know about these law changes that happened in 2017?

Changes to penalty rates

Changes have been made to certain penalty rates in the Hospitality, Restaurant, Fast Food, Retail and Pharmacy Awards. This impacts penalty rates for permanent and casual employees under those Awards working Sundays, public holidays, evenings or after midnight.

Find out more on the changes to penalty rates on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

GST on imported services and digital products

Goods and services tax (GST) now applies to:

• imported services such as architectural and legal services
• digital products such as streaming or downloading of movies, music, apps, games and e-books.

Head to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website for more information.

Simpler Business Activity Statements (BAS)

If you’re a small businesses with a GST turnover of less than $10 million, there is now less information to report on your BAS. You are now only required to report:

• G1 total sales
• 1A GST on sales
• 1B GST on purchases.

Read more about Simpler BAS on the ATO website.

Ban on excessive payment surcharges

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has introduced a ban on excessive payment surcharges for customers paying by card and other forms of payment.

This means you can now only add a surcharge up to the amount it costs for you to process the sale when your customers are paying by card.

Learn more about the ban against excessive surcharges on the ACCC website.

Consolidated cargo clearance for Trusted Traders

If you’re an Australian Trusted Trader importer or the licensed custom broker of one, you can now lodge a single import declaration for your consolidated cargo.

This means you’ll also get to reduce the amount you need to pay for processing imports, saving you time and money!

Get more information on consolidated cargo clearance for Trusted Traders.

Original article appeared first at Business.gov.au >

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