Companies and employers

• The superannuation guarantee has increased from 10.5% to 11%.
• Increases in the federal and state minimum wages go into effect.
• The Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold, which specifies the minimum wage that must be paid to a sponsored employee, was raised from $53,900 to $70,000.
• The 48-hour limit on work time per fortnight for those with student visas has been reinstated.
• The maximum amount that can be recovered by employees for underpaid labour entitlements through the small claims court processes rises from $20,000 to $100,000.
• If your small business meets the requirements, the Energy Bill Relief Fund for small businesses kicks in and applies to your energy costs.
• The ATO now accepts sharing economy reporting from platforms with electronic distribution.

Superannuation

• An increase in the superannuation guarantee to 11%
• The general transfer balance maximum rises to $1.9 million due to indexation.
• Default rates for super income streams’ minimum pension amounts. 
• For all funds, reporting on SMSF transfer balance events switches from annual to quarterly. 

You and your household

• Make sure you keep track of the times you work from home using the new 67 cent fixed rate technique for deductions. The ATO won’t accept a straightforward computation of “I work from home every Wednesday” x 8 hours.
• The first house loan guarantee is now available to “friends, siblings, and other family members.”
• For 2022–2023, Medicare’s low income cutoff has been raised.
• Beginning on July 10, 2023, families with household incomes under $530,000 will be eligible for a larger child care subsidy. For information, see the Services Australia website.
• The right to up to 20 weeks of paid parental leave for new parents.
• The eligibility age for the age pension was raised to 67.

Important: 1 July 2023 wage increases

For employers, calculating pay wrongly is not seen as an error; rather, it is seen as “wage theft.” The Fair Work Commision backs it up with fines of $9,390 per breach for a corporation, in addition to the reputational consequences of doing it wrong. The Fair Work Ombudsman recovered $532 million in unpaid pay for more than 384,000 workers in 2021–2022 alone. 

Award rates of pay and the National Minimum Wage both increased by 5.75% on July 1, 2023.

It is crucial that all firms check their payroll processes to make sure the right rates and Awards are being applied.

Workers who are not protected by an award or registered agreement must be paid the National Minimum Wage. The National Minimum Wage has increased to $23.23 per hour as of July 1, 2023 ($882.80 per week for a full-time worker working a typical 38-hour workweek).

The minimum hourly wage for casual workers is $29.04, including the 25% casual loading.

Adult minimum award wages will increase by 5.75% starting with the first full pay period on or after July 1, 2023, for workers covered by an award. Junior employees, apprentices, and subsidised wages all receive proportionate raises.

The superannuation guarantee was raised on July 1, 2023, from 10.5% to 11%.

The employee’s take-home pay may be decreased by 0.5% if the employment contract with you stipulates that they are paid on a “total remuneration” basis (base + SG and any other allowances). In other words, a larger portion of their overall compensation will go towards their superannuation fund. Employees who receive a rate plus superannuation will continue to receive the same take-home pay, and the 0.5% rise will also be added to their SG payments.

calculating the eligible expenditure’s dollar amount. Early in July 2023, more details will be posted on the arts.gov.au website.

At least $500,000 must be spent by the corporation on Australian development, which may be spread out over several years.

What exactly are development expenses?

According to the guidelines, unless it is expressly stated otherwise, any expenses a company incurs in connection with the creation of the qualifying game are eligible expenses. A corporation creates a game by carrying out all tasks required to finish, port, update, enhance, or maintain an acceptable game.

The law goes one step further by expressly mentioning employee compensation or payments made to independent contractors hired by the company to work on the game’s development (apart from bonuses associated with the company’s or the game’s performance). Additionally notably included are prototyping and the underlying game technology.

Employees who are not working on the game’s development, such as office employees or foreign contractors, are not included. Corporate expenses including marketing, travel, entertainment, and other expenses are also included.

Which games qualify?

a digital game that can be categorised and is made accessible to the general public online (games created for internal use do not qualify). Loot boxes are likely to render a game ineligible if, for instance, the virtual things can be sold for currency. Additionally, the game is neither used for advertising nor for commercial purposes.

Using the 120% ‘boost’ in skills and training to its fullest 

Registration for qualified training providers will be made by:

• Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (registration search; States and Territories included)

Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (search the register); Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA);

• Western Australian Council for Training Accreditation 

There is still a lot of training available, especially the flexible courses aimed for upskilling rather than as a degree certificate or the short courses given by universities, even though some of it may not be administered by licensed training providers. If training is a part of your staff’s growth plan and their performance assessments were just finished, it might be worth looking into.

Increase in cents per kilometre

For 2023–2024, the motor vehicle expense cents per kilometre rate has increased to 85 cents.

For more information on the latest tax changes, send an inquiry to the Bates Cosgrave team.