Watch your savings accounts! The government's trying to claim your hard earned money!

So some CRAZY laws were changed at the end of last year that meant the government could automatically take your savings from "inactive" bank accounts without your permission. Considering the purpose of a "savings" account this law is just absurd. These unclaimed money laws have recently come into affect, so check your bank accounts immediately to see if this has happened to you as its happened to me and some of my clients!

One of my clients were in complete shock this week when they received their bank statement. They had $1,000 sitting in a bank account which were there "rainy day" savings. They hadn't put any money in it for a few years and they hadn't taken any money out. However, the bank statement showed a balance of $1,000 at the start of May and a balance of $0 at the end of May. They couldn't work out where the money had gone as they hadn't touched it. So what had happened to the money? The government had taken it from their account. No letter from the government and no warning from their bank!

This also almost happened to myself. I have a small amount of money in a savings account, which was once again a "rainy day" savings. Fortunately, the bank called us to let us know that if there was no money in or out of a bank account for 3 years the government was now taking the money. We immediately transferred in a dollar. (Bank fees and interested earned are not considered to be money going in or out!)

These new unclaimed money laws were changed from 7 years down to 3 years in December 2012 . I can not believe how CRAZY this is. I encourage my clients to put away some savings for a rainy day and now their hard earned money is at risk from the government taking it.

Its also interesting to note that there has been very little government press out about these rules and educating people about the changes. We get bombarded with other rule changes to showcase what the government is doing, why not something like this?

TIPS TO MAKE SURE YOUR SAVINGS AREN'T CLAIMED BY THE GOVERNMENT:

• Check your bank accounts, even the long lost bank account that you opened when you were 5.
• Get in touch with your bank to make sure they have the your correct contact details.
• Consolidate your savings accounts and transfer in as little as 5 cents every 2 to 3 years.

So the good news is, if your money has been claimed by the government, you can get it back, but some part of me thinks the government is hoping a lot of people just don't bother. So if this happens to you, make sure you do!

For those interested in reading what ASIC has to say about the rule change click HERE

Has this happened to you? Did your bank let you know? Share your story....

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Latest tax scam email: stealing YOUR tax details and lodging fake tax returns!!

Warning - if you receive any suspicious tax emails don't open up any attachments, report it to the ATO and delete it as per my instructions at the bottom of the blog post. 

So, I opened up my inbox to the following email this morning:

End of email

Even though the email appears to be sent from @ato.gov.au, it is a SCAM email. Keep your tax file number, date of birth, address, phone number and name confidential. DO NOT reply to this email with your details - the ATO would already have this on file and would never send an email like this. There is also no such thing as a 2013 subsidy benefit!!

Scammers try and steal your tax details so they can lodge fake tax returns under YOUR name and collect big tax refunds into bank accounts they control. Given that tax time is coming up soon, watch out for anything suspicious and keep your tax information confidential.

If you receive a suspicious looking email from the ATO click this link here to report it to the ATO. Once reported, delete the email and do not follow any of its instructions in the scam email.

If you are not sure about any correspondence you receive show it to a tax professional or call the ATO.

Remember - if the email is too good to be true, it's generally a scam!!

 

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Common mistake by businesses for overtime payments! DISCLAIMER: Reading this blog may save your business THOUSANDS!!

I recently emailed my previous superannuation blog to one of my colleagues to review. He's a very skilled Industrial Agent and highlighted a common mistake that businesses make with overtime and superannuation.

So what is this mistake? Employers INCORRECTLY paying superannuation on employee's overtime. There is actually no superannuation payable on overtime!

The super guarantee, which is increasing from 9% to 12% over the next couple of years, is only paid on ordinary time earnings.

Ordinary time earnings include over-award payments, commissions, shift-loading, allowances and bonuses.

What most businesses don't realise is that payments for work performed outside an employee's ordinary hours of work (overtime) are not ordinary time earnings.

So if you're a business owner, and money is tight enough just trying to cope with the overtime rates of pay, double check your payroll to make sure you are paying superannuation correctly.

If you have overpaid on superannuation, then you are able to call up the super fund, explain the situation and they may be able to refund the amount overpaid. If you are a business that has been paying super on overtime than its probably a good time to review who you are getting tax and employment advice from.

If you're unsure whether you are paying superannuation correctly, I am able to do a complimentary payroll check for your business. Contact me by email or on Twitter if you're interested in taking up this offer. Email admin@flindersaccounting.com for your free superannuation review.

 

Part 1: Potential pay decrease from 1 July 2013 - Understanding Your Superannuation Series!

Super, Super, Super - that's all that seems to be in the media right now. So I have decided to do a small series educating people on what changes are actually happening with superannuation and how they affect you.

Employers currently pay 9% of ordinary times earnings to an employee's superannuation fund, this is referred to as the 'ESG' - Employer Superannuation Guarantee. This will transition to 12% of wages over the next 6 years, starting from 1 July 2013 to 1 July 2019. The increasing increments are below. 


Increasing the superannuation guarantee rate from 9 to 12%

Year	Rate (%)
2013-14	9.25
2014-15	9.5
2015-16	10
2016-17	10.5
2017-18	11
2018-19	11.5
2019-20	12

The key issue that affects employees and employers about this change is who will pay for this increase in super. Employers using a base wage plus superannuation may expect to have to pay the superannuation increases. But, those employees on a remuneration package including super will have to  pay the difference, which means a decrease in take home pay.

Here's an example of the difference in how your wage package will change with the 12% increase:

Super at 9%

Employee 1 - Base wage of $80,000 plus super (currently 9% - $7,200) - Gross Wage: $80,000 (before tax)

Employee 2 - Remuneration package of $87,200 including super - Gross Wage $80,000

Super at 12%

Employee 1 - Base wage of $80,000 plus super (now 12% - $9,600) - Gross Wage: $80,000

Employee 2 - Remuneration package of $87,200 including super - Gross Wage: $77,600

For Employee 1, the employer is paying the 3% super increase. But, for Employee 2, the employee is paying the 3% super increase with a resulting $2,400 decrease in their pay.

Whilst the super increase will be felt in small increments, its important for employers and employees to understand what's happening and communicate between each other.

For a review of how the changes affect your businesses payroll or your wage, please contact us.

Worried about buying online? Police's security tips for shopping online.

There are many benefits to online shopping, but it comes with a huge disclaimer: BE VERY CAREFUL!!

You can check out the Australian Federal Police's tips for shopping safely online here. It's also an important read for business owners to make sure they're promoting and encouraging potential buyers to feel secure when using their website.

If you're buying from an unfamiliar website, an additional tip of mine is to trial the website out with a cheaper purchase before you go spending hundreds of dollars on a first purchase. Some questions to ask are:

1. Did the website deliver a quality product? and;
2. Did they deliver the item to you within an appropriate timeframe?

Feel free to share any of your other tips or positive or negative experiences with online shopping in the comment section below.

Looking for spare cash? Lost or unbanked medicare cheques.

With having a baby recently, there seemed to be quite a few medicare cheques getting posted out to me over the last couple of months.  Prioritising going to the bank to bank a $35 cheque amongst everything else that needs to be done in the day, can sometimes be a struggle. I tried getting the husband to bank his medicare cheque, but that just ended in him carrying it around in his wallet for the next two months!

I thought it may have just been our family with medicare cheque banking issues, but I recently spied off a family member carrying around an unbanked medicare cheque from September last year and a business client asking if I could bank their medicare cheque whilst doing some business banking for them.

It seems that I am not the only one having problems with the medicare cheques and a friend even told me that they had quite a few at home that had remained unbanked. 

So, I thought I would update everyone on changes made last year to Medicare payments to make life just that little bit easier for you. Did you know that Medicare can now transfer the payment directly into your bank account instead of posting out cheques? And they are promising that you will receive the rebate within the next business day! 

This is fantastic news. I've already made my phone call to Medicare to update my bank account details. While I was on the phone to Medicare, I also got them to check whether I had any un-presented cheques and there was actually one worth $100. So it definitely pays to give Medicare a call.

To receive your Medicare payments in your bank account call Medicare or complete the form on the link http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/forms/1579a

You should also note that some medical providers also allow you to swipe your debit card to receive the refund straight away!

Tax Scam Alert - Fraudulent ATO emails!

The ATO recently made an announcement that there are a number of tax refund scam emails circulating.

One of my clients received a scam email last year, so beware, it could happen to you or someone you know. Feel free to share this blog post with your family or friends - it could save them a lot of hassle and money if they fell victim to a tax refund email scam.

The scam email my client received to his business email account was fairly sophisticated. I realised it was a scam when I saw that the email was sent from the email address @ato.com [the ATO email address is ato.gov.au]. This was the first alarm bell! I also knew that the client wasn't getting a tax refund and there was no way the ATO paid refunds by entering in his credit card details.

The ATO also highights these important indicators in recognising a fraudulent tax scam email:

• the email asks you to provide personal details - be very suspicious and don't respond to anything by email
• it can sometimes be poorly worded with spelling and grammatical errors (however, the scam email below looks quite professional)

If you get an email that looks suspicious, do not download anything either! If in doubt, call the ATO on 13 28 61 to clarify any issues brought up in a suspicious email.

Remember if the email sounds too good to be true, it's probably a scam. (Unless you recieve a text message saying you have won $1 billion dollars - they're generally legit... haha JOKING!)

Example of a Fraudulent email:

From: "Australian Taxation Office" <refunds@ato.com>
Date: 9 March 2012 12:30:45 ACDT
Subject: Important Notification
Reply-To: noreply@ato.com

Australian Taxation Office 09/03/2012 TAX REFUND NOTIFICATION Dear Taxpayer, After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 254.33 AUD Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it. To access your tax refund, please follow the steps below: .....- download the Tax Refund Form attached to this email .....- open it in a browser .....- follow the instructions on your screen A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline. Regards, Australian Government

Examples of Tax Scams - this link is from the ATO and has a number of tax scam email examples.


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