Accountants Point

23/02/2026

Use our free Australian income tax calculator to estimate your tax liability for the 2025-26 financial year. Calculate your refund, understand tax brackets and the Medicare levy, and discover potential deductions—all in one place.

https://www.accountantspoint.au/blog/income-tax-calculator-ato

14/11/2022

Combined value of residential real estate in Australia fell to $9.5 trillion

28/09/2022

SMSF bitcoin assets surpass $1 billion:

Recent ATO statistics indicate that the value of bitcoin assets held by SMSFs has increased by more than fivefold in the last two years.

The latest ATO numbers for the quarter ending June 2022 indicate that SMSFs hold $1.37 billion in bitcoin holdings.

This reflects an increase of more than five times the $241 million invested in crypto assets in June 2020.

While bitcoin assets currently represent a modest share of the $837.8 billion in total net assets held by SMSFs, the asset class has shown significant growth relative to other asset classes.

The net total Australian and foreign assets of SMSFs climbed from $813.7 billion at the end of June 2021 to $837.8 billion at the end of June this year.

Cryptocurrency trade In recent years, according to Digital Surge, SMSFs have increasingly gravitated towards crypto assets, particularly as exchanges have developed tools and services to better serve the SMSF industry.

As SMSFs continue to have a strong interest in this asset class, the bitcoin exchange stated that advisors would need to adjust to the shifting landscape and explore incorporating bitcoin into their services.

SMSF service provider Stake Super has experienced strong demand from SMSF investors in the asset class, and the company will add bitcoin to its investing platform later this year.

Last month, the CEO of Crypto Tax Calculator, Shane Brunette, cautioned SMSF investors on the significance of conducting extensive research before investing in cryptocurrency assets due to the proliferation of frauds in the crypto market.

“[Investors] need to understand from their own perspective whether its something worth investing in. Hopefully, that’s part of a diversified outlook where you’ve just got a small amount of funds invested with the hope of taking a view from a technology point of view that [a particular crypto asset] is going to be useful at some point in time and has core fundamental value,” Mr Brunette explained.

“[There’s still] a lot of people making money out of advice which perhaps they shouldn’t be giving in terms of investment strategies, and a lot of this leads back to scams. We see it all the time.”

Mr. Brunette mentioned the recent collapse of Terra in the United States, which was represented as a risk-free investment with a 20% yield by some parties.

“The whole thing then just collapsed to zero even though there were a lot of participants,” he cautioned.

Cadena Legal director Harrison Dell stated that there are a number of essential compliance criteria for keeping crypto assets in an SMSF, such as providing proof of ownership, ensuring the trust deed permits it, and having an investing strategy that includes bitcoin.

In order to show ownership and existence of crypto assets, the account must be in the name of the SMSF, he noted, which can be challenging because certain exchanges prohibit the registration of SMSF accounts.

With decentralised wallets or wallets that are not on exchanges, Mr. Dell advised SMSFs to carefully consider how they will protect the private key.

“One common security precaution is to use something called a ledger or a Trezor which provides a two-factor authentication. It provides some protection from hackers and can also provide a clear path of ownership,” he explained.

09/09/2022

Payroll compliance is stressing small business:

Small business owners are struggling with the regulatory environment including Single Touch Payroll which is now part and parcel of managing a workforce with nearly half saying the stress is negatively impacting their mental health.
Anna Curzon, Chief Product Officer at Xero, said payroll compliance continues to be a major challenge for employing businesses, with more than half of Australian small business owners finding the ever-changing regulatory environment stressful and confusing.

In a new report Xero found many small businesses are struggling to stay on top of regulation or award requirements around employee entitlements and payments, with more than half (56%) agreeing it’s stressful or confusing and 37 per cent worrying their staff will be paid incorrectly due to confusing payroll obligations.

The Changing world of work report looks at the workforce challenges faced by Australian small business employers, the workplace experiences of employees, and the critical role of technology in this new world of work.

According to the report, payroll compliance is driving software adoption, with more than half (51%) of employers reporting that software helps them with managing compliance. As a result, a third (38%) said software has helped to reduce their stress levels, with more than half (56%) agreeing technology that can help forecast payroll costs would make them less stressed about their workforce.

In addition to a changing regulatory environment, almost a third (29%) of employers said accurately tracking employee time and attendance was a top driver of technology adoption. Over the past 12 months, more than half (54%) of employers found that staff didn’t have ideal rostering.

After retaining staff, the second most common concern for employers when managing staff is that they aren't as productive as they could be. The average employer said it takes staff up to four months to get up to speed and reach full productivity, with employers in hospitality saying it takes up to five months. Conversely, two in four (42%) employees say poor communication hampers productivity.

13/08/2022

RBA is first and foremost in inflation fighting mode, and is probably prepared to look through any peripheral weakness in housing demand, or temporary slowdown in economic activity and looser labour markets, as the cash rate approaches a contractionary setting later this year. In fact, lower house prices and higher mortgage repayments may help to contain inflation through wealth effects, and limiting household consumption.
The good news is the RBA believes inflation will approach a peak towards the end of the year, implying the cash rate should stabilise as inflation reduces back to 2-3%. Potentially the cash rate could retrace some of the hikes through the second half of next year. In fact, this is the trajectory that financial markets are now pricing in, with the ASX cash rate futures indicating a peak in the cash rate at 3.32% by March next year followed by an easing back to 2.99% by the end of 2023.
Today’s rate hike, which is likely to flow through in its entirety to variable mortgage rates within a matter of days, paints a weaker picture for the housing sector. Higher interest rates have already had an immediate downside impact on housing values, with CoreLogic’s combined capital cities index peaking shortly after the first rate on hike in May. Since that time, dwelling values across the combined capital cities index are down -2.8% to 1 August, after rising 25.5% through the recent upswing.
According to most bank forecasts, the cash rate could rise at least another 75 basis points before peaking. With this in mind, the decline in housing values is expected to become steeper and geographically more widespread. Nationally, home values are already falling at the fastest pace since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), while Sydney values are declining at the fastest pace since at least the early 1980s, having fallen -5.3% since peaking in mid-February, with most of that decline (4.8%) occurring since May’s cash rate increase.
The trajectory of home values will depend on how fast and how high interest rates move, along with the performance of the broader Australian economy, labour markets and demographic trends. In turn, sensitivity of highly indebted households, and dampened consumption resulting from lower house prices means the RBA may continue watching the housing market closely. As the cash rate finds a ceiling, that will probably be the cue for housing values to find a floor.

12/04/2022

Home owners need to start preparing for higher interest rates and thousands of dollars a year in extra repayments after the Reserve Bank of Australia gave its strongest indication it will start increasing rates - SMH.

23/01/2022

Our new branch in Bankstown!

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23/01/2022

A must read article

Bitcoin limits governments’ abilities to block or otherwise intentionally disrupt the financial services of groups and organizations.