Research Methods for Knowledge Updates

1. The below stated are the method of keeping the knowledge of the professional up to date concerning the legislative changes are stated below;

a. Selecting a payroll software provider that helps in providing updates relating to the software whenever there is a legislative changes takes place

b. Attending the seminars of payroll in order to cover the latest payroll legislation

c. Visiting the website of the Australian taxation office

d. Joining the association of payroll

e. Visiting the state revenue website

2. The key requirements related to the preparation of the activity statement for each of the following comprises of the following

A: Tax Agent Service Act (TASA): The tax agent service laws comprises of the following;

• Tax agent service act 2009 (TASA) lay down that the tax practitioners board and also provides for obtaining the registration. It also provides for the regulations concerning the tax agent and tax financial advisers (Kenny, 2013).
• Tax Agent Service Regulations 2009 (TASR) comprises of the qualifications along with the experience relating to the requirements of the registration as the tax agent, BAS agent and the tax financial adviser. The application fees that is payable is also stated in the act where the requirements to become a recognized tax agent, BAS agent and tax financial advisers.
• Tax Agent Services (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments of 2009 comprises of the transitional and consequential matters that originates from the implementation of the TASA.  
• The Tax Laws Amendment Act 2013 lay down the regulatory framework relating to the financial tax advisors service and also comprises of the transactional provisions that is required to be a tax financial adviser.

B: Fringe Benefit Tax Assessment Act:

The key requirements of preparation of Activity statement for Fringe Benefit Tax Assessment Act are as follows;

• ATO Instalment Amount: If an individual pay the FBT on a quarterly basis, a predetermined instalment will be reflected at the F1 statement.
• Varying the instalment amount: If an individual vary their instalment amount their total amount of instalment for the year or the estimations that is based on them is lower than 90% of the actual amount of FBT liability an individual might incur a penalty (Krever, 2013).
• Varied amount for the quarter: An individual is required to determine the amount that is varied by them in the FBT instalment for the quarter
• Reasoning of the code for the variation: In preparing the activity statement an individual is required to report for the varied by mentioning the reason for variation through the help of corresponding code.
• Credit from the FBT instalment variation: If an individual varies the estimated FBT amount for the year to the lower amount then the individual is required to pay at the end of the year. An individual can get the FBT instalment credit.

C: Superannuation Guarantee Charge Act: Key requirements of the superannuation guarantee charge act as follows;

• Ascertaining and reporting the amount of shortfall in superannuation guarantee along with any associated administrative fees
• Employers and their representatives are required to lodge a quarterly superannuation guarantee due to the superannuation guarantee.
• Completing and lodging the amount of taxable payments yearly reports to the ATO on behalf of the clients (Morgan et al., 2013).

D: Superannuation Guarantee Charge Act:

• From the perspective of the employers and their representatives are under obligations of lodging a quarterly superannuation guarantee statement
• For employers they are required to incorporate the details of the nominated fund

E: A New Tax System Goods and Services Tax Act: The requirements of the Goods and Service Tax Act are as follows;

• Checking and reporting the at the top of the GST section
• An individual is required under the accounting method to identify the GST amounts relating to sales, purchase and imports
• The taxpayers are required to separately record the purchase and imports made
• Recording the input tax credit sales

F: Income Tax Assessment Act

• Checking the statement of activity and making sure to sign off with the help of appropriate person as identified by the statutory legislative and regulatory requirements
• Lodging the activity statement in compliance with the statutory, legislative and regulatory requirements
• Processing and recording payments along with the refunds that are required (Woellner, 2013).

G: Tax Administration Act: The requirements of the Tax Administration Act are as follows;  

• The requirements of TAA provides that all the records enables commissioner to assess the an individual liability of tax and all the records are required to be kept for a period of five years after the transactions or activity has taken place.
• All the records enables an individual taxpayer with the tax liability of properly assessing the records and must be kept readily to produce whenever they are requested to do so.
• A individual is required to keep the record to keep the record in English which can readily converted or translated to English (Woellner et al., 2014).

H: Other taxation laws: The requirements of other taxation laws includes

• Wine taxable dealings on which an individual is required to pay tax on wine
• Any other form of assessable dealings that is within the meaning of the Wine Tax Act
• An individual entitlements for wine tax credit
• Taxable supply of the luxury car, or the taxable importation of the luxury car
• An individual entitlements to special credit under the Wine Equalization Tax and Luxury Car Tax

I: Privacy Act: The Key requirements of the Privacy Act are as follows;

• The management of personal information should be open and transparent
• It must be in compliance with the Australian privacy principles
• Collection of solicited private information other than the sensitivity information
• Appropriate dealings with the unsolicited personal information
• Providing notification of the personal information that is collected   

3. The requirements of ATO in preparation of the BAS statements are as follows;

a. Deterring and advising regarding the liabilities, obligations or entitlements of a an individual tax payer under the BAS provision.

b. Representing a client in their dealings concerning the commercial of Taxation in the relation to the provision of the BAS

c. Declaring the services as BAS under the Superannuation Guarantee Administration Act 1992 to the certain degree that they are associated to the functions  of the payroll

d. Determining and reporting relating to the shortfall in the amount of the superannuation guarantee along with any form of connected administrative fees

The requirements of the ATO in the preparation of IAS are stated below;

a. An individual tax payer that is not registered for GST and dealing with PAYG, PAYG withholding or FBT instalments an individual is required to lodge IAS.

b. An individual is required to lodge the instalment activity statement even though there is nothing to report for the individual tax payer

c. At the time of preparing the IAS an individual is required lodge and prepare the quarterly business activities statement however the individual tax payers are required to pay withholding amount of tax on the monthly wise (Woellner et al., 2014).

4. Goods and Service tax is largely based on the tax rate of 10% for large number of goods and service that are sold in Australia. The classification of the supply is regarded as the classic sales tax issue. The GST classification or characterising of goods has been performed by making use of the necessary character or with the help of the objective characterisation under the goods test. Under the objective characterisation test goods are required to be classified in regard to their character viewed in terms of the objectivity (Woellner, 2013). On the other hand goods are classified under the essential character test as denoted under Thomson Australian Holdings Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation (1988) the essential character of the goods are based on the nature of the goods from when they are incurred. The public ruling of ATO SST 11 provides guidelines relating to the classification of the goods under the sales tax law that offers extensive amount classification of the goods for the purpose of sales tax.

5. The main TPB requirements for the registration of the BAS agent are as follows;

a. In order to be a registered BAS agent an individual is required to meet certain eligibility criteria that comprises of the qualifications and necessary experience defined under the TASR(Woellner, 2013). 

b. An individual must have certificate IV financial service (bookkeeping) or should have the certificate IV in the financial accounting service from the registered training organization.

c. An individual is required to successfully complete the Board approved course in the basic GST/BAS taxation principles.

Reference list: 

Kenny, P. (2013). Australian tax 2013. Chatswood, N.S.W.: LexisNexis Butterworths.

Krever, R. (2013). Australian taxation law cases 2013. Pyrmont, N.S.W.: Thomson Reuters.

Morgan, A., Mortimer, C., & Pinto, D. (2013). A practical introduction to Australian taxation law. North Ryde [N.S.W.]: CCH Australia.

Woellner, R. (2013). Australian taxation law 2012. North Ryde [N.S.W.]: CCH Australia.

Woellner, R., Barkoczy, S., Murphy, S., Evans, C., & Pinto, D. Australian taxation law 2014.