Theft tops economic crime list

Theft has risen to the top of the list as the number one economic crime impacting Australian businesses, a recent survey has revealed.

The theft of assets and funds was the largest economic crime committed against organisations, with cybercrime following closely behind.

In the last 12 months almost half of Australian businesses were the victim of at least one incident of economic crime.

Economic crime included asset misappropriation, employee expense fraud and fraudulent invoicing.

According to the Global Economic Crime Survey, conducted by PwC, cybercrime was emerging as the biggest growing threat to businesses with its low costs, high rewards and anonymity broadly appealing.

Theft tops economic crime list

Theft has risen to the top of the list as the number one economic crime impacting Australian businesses, a recent survey has revealed.

The theft of assets and funds was the largest economic crime committed against organisations, with cybercrime following closely behind.

In the last 12 months almost half of Australian businesses were the victim of at least one incident of economic crime.

Economic crime included asset misappropriation, employee expense fraud and fraudulent invoicing.

According to the Global Economic Crime Survey, conducted by PwC, cybercrime was emerging as the biggest growing threat to businesses with its low costs, high rewards and anonymity broadly appealing.

SuperStream deadline looms

With the deadline for SuperStream projects looming, the ATO is urging superannuation funds to act now to ensure compliance before the June 2013 cut-off date.

SuperStream is a set of standards implemented by the government which intend to improve the process of everyday superannuation transactions.

Funds are urged to start bringing reform plans forward to ensure compliance with the June 2013 deadline.

The new measures would improve fund processes, including fund-to-fund rollovers which will be required in an electronic format.

Theft tops economic crime list

Theft has risen to the top of the list as the number one economic crime impacting Australian businesses, a recent survey has revealed.

The theft of assets and funds was the largest economic crime committed against organisations, with cybercrime following closely behind.

In the last 12 months almost half of Australian businesses were the victim of at least one incident of economic crime.

Economic crime included asset misappropriation, employee expense fraud and fraudulent invoicing.

According to the Global Economic Crime Survey, conducted by PwC, cybercrime was emerging as the biggest growing threat to businesses with its low costs, high rewards and anonymity broadly appealing.

Personal income tax changes to make life easier

Changes to the personal income tax system will make it more simple and transparent to use.

From July 1, the Government will serve tax cuts to low and middle-income individuals by increasing the tax-free threshold and modifying the initial two marginal tax rates over two phases.

The tax-free threshold will increase from $6000 to $18,200, with the maximum value of the low-income tax offset reduced from $1500 to $445.

The first marginal tax rate will be increased from 15  to 19 per cent and apply only to that part of taxable income which exceeds $18,200, but does not exceed $37,000.

The second marginal tax rate will increase from 30 to 32.5 per cent and apply to that part of taxable income which exceeds $37,000, but does not exceed $80,000.

Phase two of tax cuts will come into effect July 1, 2015.

ATO to hold more power over tax refunds

New legislation drafted by the Government would allow the Australian Taxation Office to hold refunds which are pending verification checks.

The proposed law, which was released last month, would be introduced to avoid fraudulent refunds and provide the Commissioner of Taxation with legislative discretion to delay refunds to taxpayers until claim verifications are processed.

Under the drafted legislation, the ATO would withhold refunds, from both individuals and businesses, for at least 60 days for authentication.

Tax evasion crackdown

The Australian Taxation Office has announced tough new measures to clamp down on tax evasion – specifically targeting the hospitality, and building and construction industries.

The ATO has stated that businesses which deliberately use cash transactions to hide income and evade tax obligations will be under the spotlight.

Illegal behaviour included companies who paid cash in hand wages, skimmed cash takings, ran normal business activities off the books, and underground operations.

Businesses in industries which have ready access to cash will be the main focus, with the ATO implementing specific strategies to catch offenders.

A warning to Andriod users

An increase in hacker-related crime – targeted at Google Android users – has caused concern, with many hackers now using consumer apps to glean personal information and generate financial gain.

472 per cent of new viruses designed to attack Android gadgets have been detected in the past four months. This is an alarming rate, especially considering that Android accounts for more than half of the worldwide smartphone sales.

Hackers hide malicious code in popular apps that consumers download, programming them to collect sensitive information such as user identity, location or personal messages. Others are programmed to generate revenue by sending premium-rate text messages without the owner’s knowledge.

Recent updates to business benchmarks

The Australian Taxation Office has released information regarding their annual updates to small business benchmarking, with data from the 2009 financial year.

These include the following:

• The addition of new industries to small business benchmarking – including landscape construction, motor vehicle retail, panel beating and smash repairers, lawn mowing and garden services, tattooing services and pharmacy.
• The addition of total expenses to turnover benchmark ratio – allowing businesses that don’t consistently report expenses for either cost of sales or labour, to measure their performance against others in their industry.
• Merging previously divided industries that no longer require separate benchmarks.
• Revising annual turnover ranges (ie. low, medium and high turnovers) for different industries so that businesses with similar characteristics in the 2009 data are grouped together.

It is recommended that businesses review their small business benchmarks regularly. This information is available from the Australian Taxation Office or via their website.

Recent updates to business benchmarks

The Australian Taxation Office has released information regarding their annual updates to small business benchmarking, with data from the 2009 financial year.

These include the following:

• The addition of new industries to small business benchmarking – including landscape construction, motor vehicle retail, panel beating and smash repairers, lawn mowing and garden services, tattooing services and pharmacy.
• The addition of total expenses to turnover benchmark ratio – allowing businesses that don’t consistently report expenses for either cost of sales or labour, to measure their performance against others in their industry.
• Merging previously divided industries that no longer require separate benchmarks.
• Revising annual turnover ranges (ie. low, medium and high turnovers) for different industries so that businesses with similar characteristics in the 2009 data are grouped together.

It is recommended that businesses review their small business benchmarks regularly. This information is available from the Australian Taxation Office or via their website.