July 1 is fast approaching…here are some of the changes that we find interesting rather than anxiety inducing!
1. Power prices to drop- good news for NSW where both residential and business electricity prices are due to decrease by 0.2%
2. Plastic bag ban- Single use plastic bags will be banned in QLD and WA (all other states have already implemented these bans EXCEPT NSW)
3. No passport glasses- Glasses will no longer be allowed in passport photos due to their adverse impact on facial matching.
4. Online shopping tax- The governments new GST laws come into effect on July 1st The GST laws will require businesses with annual turnover of greater than $75,000 to collect GST on purchases under the current $1000 threshold. In response to this, Amazon will stop shipping to Australia from international stores. This is a good thing for Australia as it will encourage us to buy from local retailers.
5. Parking fines to shrink- great news for those of us with parking fine ‘issues’. The 10 most common parking fines will be reduced by 25%. The fines included in the cuts will be: ‘park for longer than permitted’, ‘park without ticket displayed’, ‘park after ticket expired’, ‘stand vehicle in area longer than allowed’, ‘stop in restricted parking area’, ‘park after meter expired’, ‘not stand vehicle in marked parking space’, ‘remain in ticket-operated loading zone after ticket expired’, ‘park without current loading zone ticket’ and ‘park without paying meter fee’.
6. Single touch payroll- will be introduced for business’s with more than 20 employees providing greater transparency for the ATO into employees wages and super payments. In 2014-2015, employees missed out on $2.85 billion of their super guarantee payments. Single touch payroll aims to stop employers from shirking their super obligations.
The above changes were adapted from: https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/all-the-changes-coming-from-july-1-2018/news-story/09b37e3c5d153b87cef5e5d5ffc74956