Email Correspondence
You may have noticed that we are emailing a lot more correspondence of late. This will include your accounts, tax returns, notice of assessments, invoices and statements. If you prefer to receive your correspondence via mail please let us know so we can update our records to reflect this. Should you change your email address or prefer we use an alternative email address would you please advise us to ensure you receive all ongoing correspondence.
Property Development Workshops
We're frequently asked how to get started with property development, not only to become successful, but also make a difference and make money at the same time. Property development can be very lucrative, but making mistakes can be extremely costly.Jim Castagnet has been running highly educational Property Development Workshops since 2004, where he shares his knowledge and experiences. Being a presenter at the Workshop over the last few years, we can recommend the program to people who want to get into the property development game.
The Workshop is perfect for anyone who is:
• wanting to get started in Property Development
• consulting with developers and
• already developing and would like to increase their knowledge and/or get up to date with new planning laws and policies
For more information on their 3 Day Workshops, simply click here.
There is a special offer of $3750 for all Signum clients (saving of $1245) who would like to attend.
For our clients and friends, they have provided us with the following FREE downloads with you to get a taste of what's on offer:
• 7 Part Mini course
• 7 Deadly mistakes
• First 2 chapters of Jim Castagnet's book 'BUILD'
Property Development Workshops also have an upcoming Introduction to Property Development Seminar on the following dates:
• 22nd September 2017 – Melbourne
• 27th October 2017 – Sydney
Please view here for more information. If you are interested in attending this Seminar, simply enter the code guestintro to have your registration fee ($49.95) waived.
For any more information, please feel free to visit their website www.propertydevelopmentworkshops.com.au or call 8047 5027.
Directors' Role in a Small/Medium Business - Part One
Legislation
Directors have many legal issues they need to consider in the performance of their duties. Some of the legislation that directors will probably have some involvement with includes:
• Corporations Act and the recent amendments for the creation of Crowd-Sourced Funding Equity Raising
• Taxation Act including:
- Small business entity changes – turnover now up to $10 million
- Company tax rate - companies under $10 million – small business company tax rate has been reduced to 27.5%
- Taxable payments reporting system now includes courier and cleaning industries
- Early Stage Innovation Companies
• Other legislation that directors need to be aware of includes:
- Fair Work Australia
- Workplace Health and Safety Laws
- Environmental Laws
- State/Territory Government Laws
- Ensuring that any product sourced overseas have been purchased from legitimate businesses
Board of Advice
Many company directors have found that a satisfactory way to get started on the journey to appointing a Board of Directors is to initially appoint a Board of Advice.
A Board of Advice has no decision-making powers and normally only meets about four times per annum to give "advice" to the owner, CEO, Managing Director.
In the final analysis, it is the directors who make the final decisions.
The concept of a business having a Board of Advice goes back many years – in fact it is claimed that Mr L J Hooker, the founder of L J Hooker & Co Real Estate, established a regular routine of a weekly "coffee meeting" with a small group of people who he supplied with details on his business operations and these people gave him "advice".
Many businesses successfully utilise a Board of Advice as part of their business' growth strategy.
A Board of Advice would normally consist of one to three people who the directors believe have skills that are complimentary to the directors' skills.
If you would like to have a discussion about the pros and cons of forming a Board of Advice for your business, please contact us.
Liquidator "Clawback" of $31,855
Once again clear evidence has been supplied of the problems that businesses can encounter if they have not registered a customer on the Personal Property Securities Register.
It has been reported that a liquidator has issued a letter of demand for a "clawback" of $31,855 received by a contractor for work on a housing project.
In the letter of demand the liquidator has indicated that he will seek interest of 7.5% per annum on any judgement and his legal costs if he is required to take legal action to recover the alleged preferential payment.
This action highlights the necessity for businesses to have up-to-date terms and conditions in their contracts and use the Personal Property Securities Register to protect their interests.
Some contractors are claiming that government departments should protect them against builders who fail. Whilst there is no doubt that government departments, through the registration process for builders, have a role to play – this will never be a guarantee that a builder or any other customer for that matter, will never have a liquidator appointed.
Whilst many people claim that the Personal Property Securities Register is a "bit of a maze" and you have to be very careful of terminologies and the time taken to register a customer – it is virtually the only way for a contractor to get adequate protection.
Like everything else in business, someone has to prepare the registration and enter it onto the register, but this is just another of the many costs of running a business. There is a very high probability that the business that received this demand from the liquidator would not have received that demand if the business had registered the customer on the Personal Property Securities Register. A registration on the PPSR only costs about $7 for six years. This is a very cheap "insurance cover".
If you would like to have a discussion with us about protecting your business assets on the Personal Property Securities Register, please do not hesitate to contact us.