The superannuation guarantee (SG) is the minimum percentage of a salary that an employer must contribute to an employee’s superannuation fund. The percentage is legislated and controlled by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The current SG percentage is 9.5% of employees’ ordinary time earnings. From 1 July 2021, the SG will increase from 9.5 %...

The Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2021 has been passed through Parliament and came into effect on 27 March 2021.  The bill amended the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (“Act”) by implementing several reforms, including: the introduction of a definition for ‘casual employee’; the introduction of an ‘Casual Employee Information Statement’; the introduction of...

The first phase of Australia’s coronavirus vaccination program began on 22 February 2021. Approximately 1.4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be distributed to frontline healthcare workers, hotel quarantine workers and aged care staff and residents over the next several weeks.   The second part of the first phase of vaccinations will be distributed to...

Defamation is an area of the law that most readers would be familiar with. The general idea is that if one person publishes an opinion about another person which reduces their standing within the community, it can be classified as defamation. It is a legal issue presented in popular culture, because we live in an...

2020 was a year marked by drastic changes. In March of that year, governments around the world scrambled to make the necessary adjustments to prepare for a changed world. In the name of public health and safety, the Australian Government issued a mandatory lockdown to curb the spread of the virus. As a result, only...

Since our recent blog about the first JobKeeper test case, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) has  appealed the decision handed down by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). To summarise our last blog, in December 2020, the AAT handed down its decision in Apted and Federal Commissioner of Taxation [2020] AATA 5139. The AAT decided to allow...

Many small businesses have remained afloat thanks to the JobKeeper scheme which allows employers to keep their employees following the effects of Covid-19.  Other small businesses have significantly suffered financially after being denied by the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) of JobKeeper payments due to technicalities. On 21 December 2020, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled on...

What a year 2020 has been. We began the new decade with this country in a haze of drought and devastating bushfires, just as the fires were put out, Australia and the rest of the world was thrown into the uncertainty of a global pandemic and economic downturn. It is fair to say that 2020...

In today’s fast paced business environment, it makes smart business sense to appoint a company power of attorney.  A company power of attorney may be better described by distinguishing it from an individual power of attorney. In simple terms, a power of attorney is an instrument that gives authority to another person to act on behalf...

Before March 2020, the stand down provision under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (“Act”) was uncommonly used. Then came Covid-19 and with many Australian businesses struggling in such unprecedented times, actions were taken without understanding legal obligations to employees. A stand down under section 524 of the Act permits an employer to stand down...