Lee&Lee end of year 2017 End Of Year Update 2017 | Page 2

END OF YEAR UPDATE • 2017
END OF YEAR UPDATE • 2017
End-of-year admin tasks
The end of the year is the perfect
time to catch up on administration
tasks that have fallen to the
wayside throughout the year.
Consider completing the following admin tasks
before closing down for the holiday season:
Update employee details and client lists
If you know of employees planning on resigning
over the new year period, it would be wise to
ask for the return of any business belongings,
such as the company car, uniforms, lift pass
and so on. Removing the employee from
software including staff email, the payroll
system, etc. are also smart things to do to save
you doing it in the new year. For employees
starting in the new year, make appropriate
adjustments so that there are no holdups and
everything is set-up for them on their first day.
Make arrangements if you know you will be
losing any clients, such as cancelling their
direct debit payments and removing them from
mailing lists.
Review annual performance
The end of the year is a perfect time to review
Preparing your team for the EOY shutdown
and analyse how successful it has been, in
terms of marketing, customer satisfaction,
profit margins and so forth. Evaluate the
practices that have made you money and
that have been successful. Establish how to
improve upon these in the new year. Also,
cut ties with the practices that have cost you
money or haven’t made you any.
The holiday season often means
closing down the office for a
week or two, but before doing
so; carefully consider the most
appropriate and harmonious way
to do this.
Legally, you are required to give notice to your
Set goals for the new year
Establish the goals you want to accomplish
in the new year. Focus on the different
aspects of your business you want to improve
upon and brainstorm with your team ways to
accomplish these goals. Areas you may want
to focus on include:
• Improving customer service and satisfaction
• Streamlining office processes such
as introducing automation for payroll,
rostering, etc.
• Increasing profit margin
• Strategies to reduce spending
Make appropriate payments
Before the start of the holidays, ensure
you have made appropriate payments
Review cyber security
Kickstart your holiday marketing
The festive season often presents
a time of increased sales for
small businesses.
Proactively seeking out seasonal
opportunities can help to boost not only your
sales but your business’ customer base.
Here are five ways to kickstart your holiday
marketing efforts:
Join force
The guideline provides assistance on the
administration of these sub-trust arrangements
once the 7-year loan period expires. As many
entered into these sub-trust arrangements on
or before 30 June 2011, the period is close to
expiry for many no later than 30 June 2018.
Exhaust your social media
Pair up with a similar local business that
compliments your business’ products and
services to provide a combined holiday
offer. A holiday partnership can open up
opportunities to reach new customers that
you might not have come into contact with
through your own business. The key is to find
the right partner - ideally a non-competing
business with similar customers to yours. Social media can boost your business’ reach
and visibility immensely, so use it to your
advantage. Launch a holiday marketing
campaign and advertise it heavily on all your
social channels. Use your social presence
to create a holiday thank you video, post
holiday messages, advertise your opening
hours and advise of any last-minute
cancellations or openings.
Get creative Target new customers
The festive season is a great opportunity to
show off your creativity. For example, you
can create a store window display or decorate
your office (if you are service-based), give The holiday season is the perfect time to
attract new customers and hopefully convert
them into long- term, repeat customers. Use
sales promotion techniques such as discounts,
competitions, free samples, giveaways,
vouchers, and limited-time offers to create
demand and reel in new customers.
Add perks
For some businesses, it is simply not feasible
to use sales promotion techniques such as
discounts at this time of year. Alternatively,
you can add value to your existing products
and services by including some additional
perks such as free shipping, gift-wrapping,
guaranteed-before-Christmas delivery, and
rewarding loyal customers with a bonus. If
you are a service-based business, consider
extending your availability for appointments.
Christmas and the new year are an
expensive time of year, so the more notice
and time you allow for staff to prepare, the
less likely they are to become disgruntled. Coming back to work after the EOY
shutdown can be quite tumultuous,
particularly if the employees haven’t
completed appropriate tasks before closing
down. Appropriate tasks would include:
• Notifying clients of the office’s closing
dates and reminding them that there
won’t be anyone to help them for the
set time frame
• Diverting calls and emails
• Wrapping up any projects such as
annual reports before going on leave
• Office clean up such as cleaning out
the fridge, taking out rubbish, turning
off appliances, etc.
Deadline for 7-year sub-trust arrangements
The ATO has published a Practical
Compliance Guideline PCG 2017/13
for those who used a 7-year sub-
trust arrangement to deal with
unpaid present entitlements (UPE)
owed by a family trust to a
related entity.
clients a customised thank-you gift, provide
gift suggestions and so forth. To boost your
online profile, you may want to add a holiday
banner to your website, develop landing
pages for specific products and promotions,
and send out a holiday focused email
marketing campaign. If the holidays are your
slow season, tailor campaigns for the new
year instead.
It is always wise to notify employees
formally, whether that be through a printed
memo, email, etc. This time of year can
be very busy and chaotic, and by only
telling employees in a conversation, it can
be very easy for them to forget. By having
the shutdown plans in writing, you can
also prove you have given adequate notice
should any issues arise.
Consider how this will impact on your
employees and work towards creating a
scenario that will satisfy most, if not all,
of your staff. Some employees may not
have accrued enough annual leave to cover
the office closing down period, meaning
they will need to take unpaid leave. You
may be able to offer alternatives, such
as working from home or covering some
of the administrative tasks that will need
completion whilst being shut down.
to employees, including quarterly super
contributions, wages, and any holiday bonuses.
It would also be worthwhile to make sure
clients are up to date with any payments or
bills owing.
Before wrapping up for the year, invest time to
check your cyber security is up to par. Ensure
that all malware and antivirus software is up-
to-date and renew any software licenses where
appropriate. If you are closing down for the
holiday season, remove any saved passwords or
cached information such as credit card details.
employees. The notice you are required
to give is dependent on the industry and
the award that covers your business. You
may be required to give four weeks notice
or you may be required to give less, but
you should consider giving as much notice
as you think your staff will need to make
arrangements, particularly if they aren’t
entitled to paid leave for this period.
The sub-trust arrangement formed as an option
to deal with unpaid present entitlements. A
UPE is an amount of trust income which the
trustee of a trust appoints, but does not pay, to
a private company beneficiary.
Under this arrangement, UPE funds in the
sub-trust are held for the sole benefit of the
private company beneficiary if they are lent to
the main trust under a 7-year interest only loan
with the principal of the loan repayable at the
end of the 7-year interest only loan.
The terms of the sub-trust arrangement
compromised that the terms of the investment
agreement must be legally binding and
documented, and that the trustee had an
obligation to repay the principal of the loan at
the end of the loan term.
This means the trustee must repay the
principal of the loan before the 7-year period
expires. If the trustee fails to do so, any
unpaid principal of the loan will be treated
by the Commissioner as the provision of
financial accommodation and therefore a
Division 7A loan.
The trustee of the sub-trust would then need to
enter into a 7-year complying loan agreement
by the private company’s lodgment day. This
provides a further period for the amount to be
repaid with periodic payments of both principal
and interest.
If the 7-year complying loan is not put in place
between the sub-trust and the private company
prior to the private company’s lodgment day,
a deemed dividend will arise at the end of the
income year in which the loan expires.
Furthermore, where the facts and
circumstances indicate there has never been
an intention to repay the principal of the
loan at the end of the 7-year interest only
loan, the Commissioner may consider that
the arrangement was a sham, and/or that
there was a fraud or evasion.
In these circumstances, the Commissioner
may go back beyond the period of review
and deem a dividend in the income
year in which the provision of financial
accommodation originally arose.