FBT FAQs

It’s hard to imagine, but there was a time in Australia when a boozy business lunch, an employer provided car and a free trip to the Grand Prix were common ways of doing business. Some might accuse the Tax Office of being fun police, but as 31 March draws closer, I thought it would be a good time to remind every one about fringe benefits tax (FBT). Nowadays, I think we all know that employers can’t give you benefits that aren’t taxed. But how does FBT work? What’s included? And does FBT mean that there’s no point to employers giving their staff non-salary perks? In this first post, I’m going to try and answer some of the common FBT FAQs. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll look at some of the more common benefits in depth. Continue reading “FBT FAQs”

Are you ready for the Zombie apocalypse?

The other week I received an email threatening to shut down my website unless I sent Bitcoin. I’m pretty sure you’ve all seen something similar. While this one was just a scam and easily fixed by upgrading my security, it got me thinking about how a small business could easily be crippled by a random act – either malicious and intentional or a natural disaster. Big business will always have a business continuity plan (I’m old enough to remember the doom and gloom doing the rounds way back in 1999 with the potential disruption from Y2K), but what about small businesses like us?

Continue reading “Are you ready for the Zombie apocalypse?”