Welcome to our February 2018 edition of the StewartBrown newsletter. We hope to keep you informed of the important tax developments and issues affecting businesses in Australia today. In this issue we bring you two important articles; the first being a reminder about the Single Touch Payroll system that soon becomes mandatory and secondly a new Government initiative aimed at reducing some pressure on housing affordability.

The StewartBrown Aged Care Financial Performance Survey incorporates detailed financial and supporting data from over 830 residential aged care facilities and 420 home care programs across Australia. The quarterly survey is the largest benchmark within the aged care sector and provides an invaluable insight into the trends and drivers of financial performance at the sector level and at the facility or program level.

With an average 686 hours per partner StewartBrown was ranked 1 in chartered accountants Australia and New Zealand's top 15 pro bono firms.

It is that time of year again and we thought a reminder on the tax consequences of Christmas celebrations and gifts would be timely. Income tax, FBT and GST are all relevant considerations where these costs are involved.