Ferris Financial Services

Would you click on this?

Scammers are always finding new ways to trick people into giving their personal details away.

What are some clues that this is not legit?

The email address for starters. Letters with diacritics (those marks above letters such as é) wouldn't be used by the ATO.

The website to click on to release the refund is also pretty long and not related to the ATO.

Also, we don't need to claim refunds in Australia - they are paid by the ATO once a tax return has been lodged and processed.

So even if you're not using a tax agent, in which case this email should be completely dodgy because you would hear from them directly, you need to be on the look out for suss emails. Never click on a link in an email - even if you think it's a trusted source. The safest thing to do is go to the website manually and log in to see if there are any notifications that indicate the email is genuine.

Is your business affected by the increase in fuel costs we've seen over the last few weeks?

It's likely that we're not going to see a drop in fuel and transport prices for quite some time. Have you considered changes to your pricing to account for this?

Most small businesses are running on tight margins as it is. It's not feasible for you to absorb these increased costs long term.

If you're worried about this and what you can do in your business to address pricing, reach out to us. We can help you to analyse the impact and look at your options.

Are you confident you have engaged your workers correctly? Some employers choose to engage a worker as a contractor when in fact they still meet the definition of employee, especially for superannuation guarantee purposes.

Fair Work is shining a spotlight on sham contracting, where a person is engaged as a contractor when the employer doesn't reasonably believe this.

If you are unsure if you have engaged your workers correctly, and are paying the right entitlements, reach out to us for assistance.

And don't be scared to employ people directly - we see time and again that employers are fearful of employing directly when often it's actually easier and more streamlined and ensures that you are meeting all your obligations correctly to pay your workers.

Sham contracting in the spotlight - Fair Work Ombudsman The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) are ramping up their focus on sham contracting, with community insights and intelligence revealing concerning patterns of behaviour across several industries.