Welcome back to our Weekly Digest. We hope you and your family are safe and doing well. Please read on for this week’s updates.
No locally acquired cases for the first time since Feb!
Great news this week for Victorians who recorded 12 days with no new COVID-19 cases, and the rest of the country as Australia recorded its third day without a locally acquired case nationally for the first time since late February. We are doing great!
COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough
Results from Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trials are exciting, immunology and infectious diseases experts say, as early data showed it may be 90% effective in stopping the transmission of the virus. Like many vaccines, Pfizer’s requires super-cold storage until just before it’s administered, so there is still a long way to go to build a global distribution network
Australian Business Confidence Highest Since 2019
Australian business confidence in October rose to its highest level since mid-2019 as the economy showed more encouraging signs following the steep decline brought by the pandemic.
According to NAB’s monthly business survey, business conditions edged one point higher in October from September to 1 index point, while confidence rose nine points to 5 index points.
This recovery comes as Victoria, which accounts for about 25% of the economy, eased stringent COVID-19 restrictions after containing the second wave of the virus.
Employers May Need to Give Employees More Super Choices
A change to the law means that you may need to offer employees more choice in relation to the super fund that you pay their compulsory superannuation contributions to.
All workplace determinations and enterprise agreements made on or after 1 January 2021 must give employees the right to choose their super fund.
Once a new determination or agreement is in place, you’ll need to give a Superannuation standard choice form to:
- existing employees who request to choose their super fund
- all new employees.
You must then pay employees’ compulsory super to their nominated fund. We will keep you informed of the updates but please feel free to chat to us if you have any questions.
Supporting Apprentices and Trainees Wage Subsidy Extended
The Supporting Apprentices and Trainees wage subsidy has been expanded and extended to include medium-sized businesses who had an eligible apprentice in place from 1 July 2020.
Eligible employers will receive a wage subsidy of up to 50% of the wages paid until 31 March 2021 worth up to $7,000 per quarter, per eligible apprentice or trainee, to manage their cash flow challenges. Subsidies will also be available to any new employer who re-engages an eligible apprentice that was displaced by an eligible small- or medium-sized business.
This may be of particular interest to employers who are not eligible for the JobKeeper extension. For professional assistance in applying for this wage subsidy or any other funding assistance, feel free to contact us.
Our new App was launched last week
It was with a great pleasure to launch our App last week. Many of of our clients have already downloaded it and have given us some feed back about it. Interestingly, we have noticed that some people who are not our clients have also downloaded the App. We expect more people to downloaded the App in coming weeks. It can be downloaded from App store and Google Play.
The current version of our App is the result of many months of hard work including research, planning and exchanging hundreds of emails and making many phone calls with the company that built the App for us. It will be regularly supervised, maintained and updated by the same company which is an Australian company based in Melbourne.
I sincerely believe that we should use latest technology in our day to day business operation in order to make things easier and better for our valued clients so they can focus on their work and more importantly their life. That is why we are constantly improving our communication and interaction with them. Last year, we introduced our portal which most of our clients are using it now and are very impressed with it. Early this year, we started to send out weekly newsletter to people on our database which is read by many people. Now, it is the time for us to take the next step to introduce our new App to make things even better and easier for our valued clients.
Some of the features of the App are:
- Digitally sign your documents. No more printing, signing, scanning, and emailing. So easy.
- Access your documents anytime, anywhere. So convenient.
- Be alert and informed about your due dates and important news and updates.
- Update your details on our system anytime. No need to call us for this purpose.
- Make appointments with us anytime. No need to call us anymore.
- Pay your accounts and even refer your friends and loved ones to us anytime.
- Access to latest news on “Australian Financial Review” and “Australian Stock Exchange”
- Check how much Stamp Duty you should pay on a property purchase in any state in Australia.
- More features are also available in one beautiful, secure, and easy to use App.
Instruction to download, register and subscribe
- Download “Countax” App from App Store or Google Play;
- Click on “i” symbol at the top right-hand side of the screen to register as a user;
- Enable “Push Notifications” and subscribe for one or more categories;
Please note to receive our notifications and updates, you need to register yourself when downloading the App.
Download our App TODAY to enjoy great features.
Get in touch
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Have a great weekend.
