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All owner-operated businesses

All owner-operated businesses · 2026-08-24

Sell up and put the money in super? Your balance on 30 June 2027 now sets a tax bill

Most coverage of Division 296 has been written for people who already have millions in super. That is not the readership that gets caught. The owner who gets caught is the one who sells a business, does the completely normal thing of putting the proceeds into super under the small business CGT cap, and discovers that the balance the sale just created is the balance a new tax measures. The year it first applies is the year you are in. And for this first year only, the date that decides it is 30 June 2027, which gives you about ten months to make the decisions that matter.

Cafes & coffee shops · 2026-08-17

Delivery riders got a pay floor today. Uber and DoorDash asked for it

This one does not touch your wage bill, so nobody will write to you about it. It touches the cost of the channel that sells your food when the customer never walks in. From today the apps must pay a delivery worker at least $31.30 an hour of engaged time, that floor steps up on 1 January 2027, and from 2028 it rises with the minimum wage every year. Nothing in the order says a word about what Uber or DoorDash may charge a venue, which is exactly the point.

Clinics & med-spas · 2026-08-10

Your clinic's reminder texts may now say "Unverified". Nobody can fine you for it, which is exactly why it will cost you.

Since 1 July 2026, a text sent to an Australian phone from a business name that is not on the new SMS Sender ID Register has that name stripped off and replaced with the word "Unverified", then filed in one thread next to scam messages. Your appointment reminders are exactly that kind of text. There is no fine and no deadline attached to any of it, so no letter arrived telling you, and that is why this turns up in your no-show rate instead of your inbox.

Gyms & studios · 2026-08-06

The subscription trap ban is law. Your existing members are not as grandfathered as you think.

Short answer: the ban is law, it starts on 1 July 2027, and the part that matters to you is not the fine. It is that a member then has to be able to leave as easily as they joined, and if they joined on your app they have to be able to cancel on your app. So if a slice of your monthly billing comes from people who have not walked through the door since March, that slice now has a date on it. Here is what is actually in the Act, what is still being written, and what the smart gyms are doing with the eleven months.

All owner-operated businesses · 2026-08-01

The $20,000 instant asset write-off is not law, and the year it covers is already running

If you are about to buy an espresso machine, a new set of chairs or a treatment bed, here is the honest position: nobody can tell you today what that purchase is worth in tax. The $20,000 instant asset write-off ran out on 30 June 2026, and the replacement announced in the May Budget has not passed Parliament. The threshold actually written in the law right now, for the year you are trading in, is $1,000. This page covers what that does to your cash, what it does not do, and the one move that could genuinely cost you if you get it wrong.

Cafes & coffee shops · 2026-07-26

The card surcharge disappears on 1 October. The fee behind it moves onto your P&L.

If your cafe adds a card surcharge at the terminal, that line goes away on 1 October 2026. The fees behind it do not. They move into your cost of doing business, and unless you act before then they come straight out of your take-home. Here is what that costs on real takings, the cost cut arriving the same day, and the bigger saving that most cafe owners are sitting on without knowing it.

All owner-operated businesses · 2026-07-22

Payday Super started on 1 July 2026. It does not cost you more, until you get it wrong

Straight answer, because you are busy: Payday Super does not raise the amount of super you pay. It is still 12%. What changed on 1 July 2026 is the timing. You now pay super every time you run payroll, not once a quarter, and it has to land in your team's funds within 7 business days. So the hit is not on your profit-and-loss, it is on your bank balance and on what it costs you if you are late. Here is exactly what moved, what it does to your cash, and the one part that quietly shows up years later when you sell.

Salons & barbers · 2026-07-15

Two things hit your salon's first July pay run: a 4.75% award rise and Payday Super

If you employ stylists, your first pay run in July 2026 costs more than June did. The Hair and Beauty Award, which sets the minimum you can pay almost everyone in a salon, went up 4.75%, so a Level 1 stylist moves from $26.55 to $27.81 an hour. On the same day a second change called Payday Super started: it does not change how much super you pay, but it changes when it has to leave your account. Here is exactly what both do to your margin, worked on your own roster, and how to make the timing work for you instead of against you.

Cafes & coffee shops · 2026-07-12

The July 2026 wage rise: the number that hits your cafe is 4.75%, not the 6% in the headlines

If you run a cafe you have probably seen the 6% minimum wage headline and braced for it. Here is the first thing worth knowing: 6% is almost certainly not your number. Your baristas and floor staff are on the Restaurant or Hospitality award, and award rates went up 4.75%, not 6%. Smaller than the headline, still straight out of your margin, and it lands on more of your bill than the percentage lets on. Here is what it actually costs you, on your own roster, and the bit that quietly follows you to the day you sell.