The Carbon Tax is here and will start 1 July 2012.

Many small businesses won't be directly impacted because they aren't emitting enough to worry (more than 25,000 tonnes of CO2 per year).

But what is the impact though of indirect or passed through costs to business, and how should you be preparing now to save $ and review your contracts?

Treasury have released exposure draft regulations that will significantly affect construction industry businesses.

The regulations mean that businesses in the building and construction industry will be required to report annually to the ATO the details of payments made to contractors (remember PPS..?).

These regulations will also allow the ATO to start matching up where contractors got paid from. Are you a contractor primarily working for a firm in the building or construction field, and do you use a trust or company to split income from one source? Brush up on the Personal Services Income rules..! 

Be prepared for what will be required from 1 July 2012.

On 15 March 2012 the "Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives Bill 2011" passed Senate without amendment.

From 1 July 2012 three new private health insurance incentive tiers will apply.

To find out how this will affect your rebate for your health insurance policy, you will need to understand your income threshold calculation.

MYOB have undertaken an interesting re-write of their AccountRight program built on their new .NET platform.

In their marketing, it is described as "the next step on the journey towards a more connected future". There are definitely some handy enhancements, but upgrades or new purchases are having no end of issues.

We spoke to Katrina Spinazzola, who is an MYOB Certified Consultant from KRS Business Services about the positives and negatives of the new MYOB platform.

This article is a MUST READ for all users of MYOB products.

Do you sometimes wonder with everything online these days, why you can't lodge your Business BAS online?

For those businesses preparing and lodging your own BAS (or if your book-keeper lodges it), there is a really handy online service with the ATO.

And the best part of lodging online? If you are on a quarterly BAS cycle, you will automatically get a two week extension for lodging and paying your BAS.