• All tax payers that claim Family Tax Benefits through the tax office must now use and cotnact the Family Assistance Office to make claims - see www.familyassist.com.au.
• Superannuation legislation has been updated to provide application to same sex partners.
• The ATO has announced that small businesses (<$2 million turnover) can obtain a 30% increase in depreciation deductions on all plant and equipment  (>$1,000) acquired before 30 June 2009 and 10% increase for plant equipment acquired between 1 July 2009 and 31 December 2009.  All other  business can obtain same deduction by acquiring plant and equipment worth more than $10,000.

Market now at 6 year lows with a myriad of companies being oversold. Westpac and CBA still on 9-10% yields fully franked, makes it difficult to have money sitting in a term deposit for the longer term. Although the economy may slip into recession this quarter, the market has predicted this 4 months ago. Therefore the market will rally just after the official recession announced.

• Data released by the ABS showed the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the December quarter showed a decline of 0.5% over the previous quarter. 
• The ABS yesterday advised that Dwelling Unit Approvals fell by a seasonally adjsted 3.7% during the month of January.
• Data released by the ABS showed Housing Finance for owner occupant housing increased by a seasonally adjusted amount of 7.1% during the month of December 2008.
• Data released by the ABS showed the Unemployment rate for January 2009 at 4.8%.  This was an increase of 0.3% over the last month.
  In November business bankruptcies grew substantially on previous years.  Adminstrations jumped 75%, liquidations 50% and personal bankruptcies 5%.
• Truck sales slumped 20% in the month of January.

Low-income working mothers are paying more tax than the top earning super rich, who face a top income tax rate of just 45 per cent.

The culprit is the means-tested family tax benefit system, which crucifies the income of mothers when they return to work.

WORKING mothers on low and middle incomes are being slugged with tax rates of more than 56 per cent - and the money is being used to pay for tax cuts for the rich.

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The Commissioner has agreed to extend the deadline for superannuation guarantee charge statements for the quarter ending 31 December 2008 from 2 March 2009 to 28 May 2009.

The Commissioner does not have discretion in relation to the nominal interest component of the charge which is charged to employers who haven’t made contributions to a fund on time.

Nominal interest is passed on to an employee’s super fund to compensate the employee for late payments made on their behalf to their super fund by their employer.

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