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The Flood Levy

As part of the recent federal budget the Government announced it will introduce a new flood levy to raise further taxes to cover the rebuilding of the Queensland economy for one year only from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012. For small business owners with employees, the requirements on you will be to withhold extra PAYG Withholding from your employee's wages to be remitted to the ATO on your monthly or quarterly BAS forms.

Exemptions will apply for individuals earning less than $50,000.00 p.a., or those who have been affected by the declared natural disaster. The ATO will issue new tax tables to assist you in calculating the required PAYG amounts.

Software providers such as MYOB will, I'm sure, issue compliance updates to your accounting software packages to assist you in withholding the correct amounts. If you have an employee that claims they have been affected by the disaster and are exempt from the extra tax, then they should complete a Flood levy exemption declaration, now available from the ATO, and pass this on to you so you can then withhold the proper amounts of PAYG for the 2012 tax year.

If you have further questions about how the flood levy affects you, make sure you speak to you small business accountant. 

 
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