Things you need to know July 1

It’s the new financial year, which means a raft of changes to fees, charges, taxes, rules, regulations and laws.

From plastic bags to passport photos, 1 July 2018 will herald a number of changes across many fronts.

As always, the start of the new financial year brings with it the usual changes to fees, charges, taxes, rules, regulations and laws.

Here’s what you need to know:

Some of the key changes:

Single touch payroll

Employers with 20 or more employees will be required to report payments such as salaries, wages, pay-as-you-go (PAYG) withholding and superannuation directly from their payroll or accounting software from July 1.
Single Touch Payroll will be expanded to include employers with 19 or fewer employees from July 1, 2019.

The Single Touch Payroll system will give the Australian Taxation Office near-real time visibility of an employee’s wage and super payments, meaning employers who attempt to rip off their workers will have nowhere to hide.

Plastic bag ban

From July 1, single-use plastic bags will be banned in Queensland and Western Australia (South Australia, ACT, Northern Territory and Tasmania already have bans in place). Victoria will ban plastic bags, but is yet to announce a start date and NSW has not announced a ban. However, most major retailers have instituted a virtual nationwide ban.

Minimum wage increase

About 2.3 million of Australia’s lowest paid workers will get a 3.5 per cent pay increase from July 1. The national minimum wage to increase by $24.30 per week following the Fair Work Commission’s 2017-18 Annual Wage Review.

Online shopping tax

Amazon will stop shipping to Australian addresses from its international store in response to the government’s new online GST laws coming into effect on July 1, which require businesses with annual turnover greater than $75,000 to collect GST on purchases under the current low-value threshold of $1000.

Downsizing contributions

From July 1, people aged 65 and older will be able to contribute up to $300,000 from the sale of their family home to their superannuation. This is part of the housing affordability package in last year’s federal budget, the government announced an incentive for older Australians to downsize to free up housing stock for first homebuyers.

Tax changes

As part of the government’s seven-year tax plan announced in last month’s federal budget, taxpayers will be receiving tax relief in the form of either an annual lump sum tax offset or increased tax brackets from July 1. People earning up to $37,000 a year will get a maximum offset of $200, while people earning between $37,000 and $90,000 will get a maximum offset of $530. A person currently earning $90,000 a year will also pay $135 less tax.

Family payments changes

Parents receiving the Family Tax Benefit Part A could see their payments reduced by up to $28.28 per fortnight, per child, if their children aren’t immunised.
In addition, the childcare subsidy scheme is being overhauled, by combining existing subsidies into a single means and activity-tested payment from July 2, which could increase payments by as much as $1333 a year for the average chil

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If you require any assistance with your personal or business financial needs, please do not hesitate to contact a RSM adviser at your local RSM office today.