2026 Budget: The Big Changes Editor: The Federal Government handed down the Federal Budget on 12 May 2026, with some of the biggest changes to the tax system in years. Some of the main proposed changes include: Delivering a new Working Australians Tax Offset (‘WATO’) to provide a permanent annual $250 tax offset to all eligible Australian workers. This applies to eligible income earned from 1 July 2027 (i.e., from…  Read more

Know when a new logbook is required Keeping a car logbook may be required to accurately calculate the business-use percentage of vehicle expenses (e.g., fuel, registration, insurance and depreciation) for tax deductions. Taxpayers can keep the same logbook for their car for five years, but there are circumstances where they may need a new one during that period. Relying on a logbook that no longer represents a client’s work-related travel…  Read more

$20,000 instant asset write-off extended The Government recently passed legislation to extend the $20,000 instant asset write-off for small businesses by 12 months to 30 June 2026. Taxpayers should note that if their business has an aggregated annual turnover of less than $10 million, they may be able to use the instant asset write-off (‘IAWO’) to immediately deduct the business portion of the cost of eligible assets which cost less…  Read more

Paid parental leave changes have now commenced As from 1 July 2025, the amount of Paid Parental Leave available to families increased to 24 weeks, and the amount of Paid Parental Leave that parents can take off at the same time has also increased from two weeks to four weeks. Superannuation will now also be paid on Government Paid Parental Leave from 1 July 2025, at the new super guarantee…  Read more

Super contribution caps to rise The big news story for those contributing to super is that the contribution caps are set to increase from the 2025 income year. The concessional contribution cap will increase from $27,500 to $30,000. This ‘CC’ cap is broadly applicable to employer super guarantee contributions, personal deductible contributions and salary sacrificed contributions. The non-concessional contribution cap will increase from $110,000 to $120,000. This ‘NCC’ cap is…  Read more

Lodging of Taxable payments annual reports The ATO reminds taxpayers that it is now time for them to check if their business needs to lodge a Taxable payments annual report (‘TPAR’) for payments made to contractors providing the following services: (a)     building and construction; (b)     cleaning; (c)     courier and road freight; (d)     information technology; and (e)     security, investigation or surveillance. TPARs are due on 28 August…  Read more