Newsletter

Dad and Partner Pay provides eligible dads or partners with financial support to be able to take time off work to bond with their baby and to support mums or partners in the vital early months of their baby’s life.

Dad and Partner Pay is a new payment under the Australian Government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme. It is now available to eligible working dads or partners who care for a child born or adopted from 1 January 2013. It provides eligible working dads or partners (including adopting parents and same-sex couples) with up to two weeks of government-funded pay at the National Minimum Wage (currently about $606 per week before tax).

Dad and Partner Pay is funded by the Australian Government. Employers do not have an administrative role and it will be paid directly by the Australian Government.

You and your employee will need to discuss and agree on unpaid leave arrangements and your employee will have to apply for Dad and Partner Pay themselves.

Eligible dads or partners must:

• be caring for a child born or adopted from 1 January 2013;
• be an Australian resident;
• have worked for at least 10 of the 13 months prior to the start date of their Dad and Partner Pay period;
• have worked for at least 330 hours in that 10 month period (just over one day a week), with no more than an eight week gap between two consecutive working days
• have an individual adjusted taxable income of $150,000 or less in the previous financial year; and
• not be receiving paid leave or not working during the Dad and Partner Pay period.

Dad and Partner Pay can be taken any time in the first year after birth or adoption.

In addition to Dad and Partner Pay, families may be eligible for other family assistance such as Paid Parental Leave or Baby Bonus and Family Tax Benefit.

For more information call the Business hotline on 131 158.

This program is called the WorkCover Data Matching Program and it enables the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to:

• identify and address the compliance behaviour of employers who may not be correctly meeting their taxation obligations; and
• be more strategic in its approach to determine appropriate educational and compliance strategies to encourage voluntary taxation compliance by employers.

The ATO will collect names and addresses of employer entities from the following state and territory WorkCover sources for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 financial years:

• WorkSafe Victoria
• WorkCover South Australia
• WorkCover New South Wales
• WorkCover Queensland
• WorkCover Western Australia
• WorkCover Northern Territory
• WorkCover Australian Capital Territory
• WorkCover Tasmania

The total number of records Australia-wide is estimated to be 942,000 of which approximately 103,000 will be individuals who are employers. The data acquired will be electronically matched with certain sections of ATO data holdings to identify employers that may not be complying with their registration, lodgement and payment obligations under taxation law.

The ATO may also disclose information about employers that may not be meeting their obligations under workers compensation laws if requested by the relevant WorkCover authorities. The ATO is legally able to make this disclosure.

This was notified in the Commonwealth Government Gazette Notice C2013G00491.

The Australian Business Register (ABR) recently upgraded its registration services, making it even easier to set up a business. As part of the online Australian business number (ABN) application, you can now register for:

• a business name - for individuals and organisations with an Australian Company Number or Australian Registered Body Number;
• an AUSkey; and
• GST/fuel tax credits and PAYG withholding.

Some of your details will be pre-filled from one registration to the next.

If you choose not to apply for these registrations at the same time as your ABN application, you can apply at a later date but will need to do so directly with each agency.

ABN REGISTRATION TIPS

To prevent delays in the online process, make sure:

• you are entitled to an ABN – you must have started trading or have undertaken business commencement activities to trade in Australia;
• you provide the correct date of birth;
• the business address is a street address (for example, 123 Smith Street, Smithfield) – do not use a post office box number, RMB (roadside mail box) or other delivery point address. You can use the home address if you operate a home-based business or are a contractor who works at different sites;
• you do not include – phrases such as ‘trading as’, ‘ATF’, ‘liquidation’ or ‘the body corporate for’ in the legal name – the name of the trustee in the legal name of the trust (for example, Smith Pty Ltd as trustee for the Smith Family Trust) – phrases such as ‘t/tee’, ‘exec’ or ‘exec for’;
• the legal name for a Corporations Act company matches the name registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) – this must be an exact match including all full stops and character spacing; and
• the earliest ABN start date is the date of incorporation (if the company is registered with ASIC).

While you are not legally required to provide a TFN, if you don’t, the online application may fail if the data listed above does not exactly match the information the ATO holds. In the case of a partnership, trust, or company, make sure you provide the TFN for associated individuals or entities.

On 29 June 2012, changes were made to the tax and superannuation laws to reduce the scope for companies to engage in fraudulent phoenix activity or to escape liabilities and payments of employee entitlements.

The ATO was given new powers that provide greater protection for certain employee entitlements. Company directors, especially those suspected to be engaged in fraudulent phoenix activity, now have an increased level of personal liability for unpaid and unreported superannuation guarantee and PAYG withholding. These amendments help protect workers' entitlements and strengthen directors' obligations.

By introducing further disincentives for companies to avoid their tax law and employee obligations, these changes are intended to deter directors from engaging in fraudulent phoenix activities and to improve the regulatory environment for businesses that comply with the tax and super laws.

ATO phoenix audits often lead to detection of other offences, both civil and criminal. This includes false and misleading statements made on tax returns or business activity statements, and defrauding of the revenue system.

The changes protect workers' entitlements and strengthen directors' obligations by:

• extending the director penalty regime and the estimates regime to apply to unpaid super guarantee charge;
• ensuring that directors cannot discharge their director penalties by placing their company into administration or liquidation when pay as you go withholding (PAYG withholding) or super guarantee charge remains unpaid and unreported three months after the due date (known as 'lockdown' director penalties); and
• in some instances, making directors and their associates liable to PAYG withholding non-compliance tax (NCT), a tax equivalent to reducing PAYG credit entitlements where the company has failed to pay amounts withheld to the Commissioner.

Recently, the ATO obtained data from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) about the General Employee Entitlement and Redundancy Scheme. This data the ATO is using to assist in the identification of fraudulent phoenix operators.