Fortis Accounting Partners in Sydney, Australia | Business service

Fortis Accounting Partners

Locality: Sydney, Australia

Phone: +61 2 9743 3600

Address: Suite 9, 101 Bathurst Street 2000 Sydney, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.fortisap.com.au

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23.01.2022 Its one of those conversations which stops you in your tracks. Youre put on the spot, you have to answer and, frankly you dont know how to respond. Yep, its about money. That awkward moment where a friend or relative asks you to lend them money. If its only a few bucks, maybe even a hundred or two, then its usually OK.... But if its thousands of dollars to help the borrower buy a car, put a deposit on a house or even start a business, then things start to get a bit more serious. And it can put you in a very tough spot. See more

22.01.2022 George Cochrane answers a few questions for The Sydney Morning Herald readers. For advice specific to your personal financial situation, please dont hesitate to get in touch with us here at Fortis Accounting Partners/Fortis Financial Planning - were always happy to have a chat! "We are a couple, both aged 64 and both working full-time. We own our home in Drummoyne and have had an investment unit in Gladesville worth $700,000 to $750,000, since 2005. Obviously, we would like to retire in a couple of years. We only have about $400,000 each in super, mine in Australian Super and my wifes in First State. I also have about $250,000 in shares. Our tax agent said that we should look at selling the unit (we owe about $250,000 on it) and rolling the difference into our super to avoid capital gains tax."

21.01.2022 On Thursday (7 December), the federal parliament passed elements of the Turnbull governments housing affordability plan, which was first announced in the budget. This plan incorporates the First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSS), which enables first home buyers (FHBs) to access their tax-exempt voluntary superannuation contributions from 1 July 2018, and the rate of deemed earnings (made from 1 July 2017). The FHSS permits individuals to contribute up to $30,000 (but no more than $15,000 a year) to their superannuation account, with FHB couples eligible to contribute up to $60,000.

20.01.2022 How many people know the nitty gritty of your financial position? My guess is very few outside the relevant professionals, like your accountant or mortgage broker, because its just not the type of thing Australians openly delve into. Talking about money is variously viewed as impolite, garish or simply taboo. Research suggests that when we do talk about money, we dont always give the full story.

19.01.2022 Cashflow is notoriously tight this time of year, and Aussie SME owners are urged to ensure their expense policies are watertight, as research suggests workers are more than happy to bill their employers for personal expenses. A review of 4,000 workers across Australia, New Zealand, North America and the United Kingdom compiled by expense management platform Webexpenses revealed one in ten workers said they exaggerated or falsified the expense claims they made to their employers.

19.01.2022 The fact that were overstretched, tired and ready to dive into the nearest swim-up bar means that most families are planning to take a holiday in the coming year, according to a recent Hotels Combined survey. The only problem with this scenario is that were not factoring those family holidays into our budgets. The research found that 53 per cent of families escaping the daily grind over the next year will borrow money to do so. If youre worried about holiday debt and youd... like to speak with an experienced accountant to simplify your spending - please get in touch with the team here at Fortis Accounting Partners. You can reach us on 02 9267 0108, or via [email protected].

18.01.2022 An incredibly rare Australian banknote is expected to fetch more than $70,000 at auction next week, but its owner will be less than thrilled. The 1920s-era five-shilling note about $20 today was part of a run of more than one million notes printed by the government but never issued. Its one of only four known to exist, rescued from the furnace and passed down by C.J. Cerutty, then Assistant Secretary to the Treasurer, whose signature appears on the note.

18.01.2022 Former Reserve Bank board member Warwick McKibbin has warned wages will fall and interest rates could rise if Australia does not follow the lead of the US and cut the company tax rate. The Trump administration is about to pass the largest overhaul to the US tax system in decades, slashing the corporate tax rate to 20 per cent in a bid to stimulate jobs and investment.

17.01.2022 Its one of those financial nightmares we all hope doesnt come true running out of money in retirement. Outliving your wealth adds an unwelcome level of stress at a time when youre financially vulnerable. Without a regular income stream from a wage, and limited employment opportunities, it is near impossible to rebuild. Here are our top seven strategies to ensure your wealth lasts a lifetime ... or longer.

16.01.2022 Almost half of Australian homeowners taking out mortgages are failing to ask the No.1 question that could save tens of thousands of dollars on their loan repayments. In NSW, an average owner-occupier mortgage is $433,800, with interest at the standard 4.73 per cent. With a 0.2 per cent discount it could potentially save a homeowner $52 a month or more than $18,698 over a 30-year loan. Yet about 45 per cent of homeowners are not requesting a lower interest rate when applying for a loan, a survey conducted by finder.com.au has found.

16.01.2022 Treasury has published its consultation paper on the early release of superannuation benefits, and access for domestic violence victims and renters is up for discussion. Minister for Revenue and Financial Services Kelly ODwyer said on Wednesday that she looks forward to working with stakeholders to ensure that the rules governing early release of superannuation benefits remain fit for purpose, and that Treasury would review the early release rules to consider victims of crime and domestic violence, people in need of medical assistance and those behind on mortgage repayments.

15.01.2022 The rather unexpected allusion by the prime minister this week in a speech to the Business Council of Australia to the governments pursuit of further income tax cuts is not one that should be treated with too much respect until he also talks about how to pay for them. With the return to surplus built on income tax revenue, any income tax cuts are unlikely to come before the next decade without either increases in other taxes or big cuts to government services. Amid the usual... free markets are great rah-rah that the prime minister doled out to the Business Council of Australia on Monday night, Malcolm Turnbull also slipped in a line on income tax cuts, noting that he was: Actively working with the treasurer and all my cabinet colleagues to ease the burden on middle-income Australians, while also meeting our commitment to return the budget to surplus. See more

15.01.2022 Most Australians say they would be happy to receive a secondhand present this Christmas but are shy about giving one for fear of looking cheap. The average Australian spends more than $600 on Christmas gifts each year, or more than $9 billion nationwide, according to a study by Galaxy Research commissioned by Gumtree. Parents are the highest spenders, forking out $776 on average, and Millennials the lowest, with an average budget of $473. Most believe they could shave a third off the presents bill if they bought secondhand.

14.01.2022 With Australias most vulnerable in need of affordable housing, social impact investing could be the solution as long as governments mitigate the friction of a potentially lower yield. The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) recently released its study into the role of impact investment in supporting vulnerable households to achieve their housing goals.

13.01.2022 The recent upsurge in the price of Bitcoin seems to have finally awakened the world to the massively destructive environmental consequences of this bubble. These consequences were pointed out as long ago as 2013 by Australian sustainability analyst and entrepreneur Guy Lane, executive director of the Long Future Foundation. In recent months, the Bitcoin bubble has got massively bigger and the associated waste of energy is now much more widely recognised.

13.01.2022 The Australian retirement system continues to leave women at a huge disadvantage, a government-funded study has found, leaving researchers confounded by policy complacency. The results of a three-year federal government-funded study into the superannuation gap was released this week and found that Australian women face substantial financial difficulties, despite significant gains in career and education opportunities.

13.01.2022 Did you know that the Australian Taxation Office hosts free workshops for small businesses? Apart from coming to Fortis Accounting Partners for advice - going straight to the ATO is definitely a safe path to information. If youre living running a small business here in New South Wales (or indeed, any other Australian state), take a quick look at the list of upcoming events and have a think about whether any of these would be relevant to you. If you arent sure whether it would be worth going along; please feel free to give us a call on 02 9267 0108 - were always happy to provide guidance!

12.01.2022 The owner of an abandoned Sydney apartment which sparked a bidding frenzy after being put up for auction by the NSW sheriff earlier this month renounced his worldly possessions when he moved back to Malaysia to become a Buddhist monk. Siak Hong Law purchased the top-floor studio in the Ballina Art Deco building on Darley Street in inner-city Darlinghurst for just $75,000 in 1989. Mr Law was in the process of renovating the 32sq m unit when he suddenly disappeared a decade ago.

12.01.2022 New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal that childcare remains the biggest barrier to women either entering the workforce or taking on more hours. The data show that women, whether they are employed or not, will always rate the issue of caring for children more highly than do men, when it comes to thinking about their working life.

12.01.2022 A banking inquiry is closer to becoming reality, with another lower house National party MP signalling he is on board. After Barnaby Joyce suggested early on Monday that the Nationals might switch positions on the banking inquiry when the party room meets next Monday, the dissident MP George Christensen launched a website in support of the probe and fellow Queenslander Llew OBrien signalled to colleagues he was likely to support it, too. After telegraphing his view to colleagues, OBrien later told the Australian he was looking favourably on the inquiry proposal.

10.01.2022 For hundreds of years, people have described showy or insubstantial schemes using a foamy metaphor: Jonathan Swift described the doomed South Sea Company as a "mighty bubble", Victorian-era slang dictionaries call fraudulent assurance promoters "bubble-men". In the strictly economic sense, though, bubbles are attested from the late 19th century. Theres just one problem: even today, economists cant agree on what constitutes one. "Most people think they know it when they see ...it," says Timo Henckel, lecturer at the Australian National Universitys research school of economics. Even, he says, if they cant describe it to you. See more

10.01.2022 Investors with a long time horizon should not be discouraged by the rising interest rate environment from investing in global real estate as the asset class was likely to outperform equities in the long term, according to Quay Global Investors. Speaking to financialobserver, Quay Global Investors principal and portfolio manager Chris Bedingfield said while the fund manager had seen significant success in the retail market over 2017, the prospect of rising rates in the United States currently had some investors spooked.

09.01.2022 Business is important, but nobody can deny that working nonstop without making time for rest and time with loved ones is a sure-fire way to approach burnout, potentially at the expense of your business. For business founders and leaders across the country, the last weeks of the year will see them balancing operations while also working out how to fit in time to unwind, reflect, and have some fun. So what are their plans for the festive break? Here are some of them.

09.01.2022 Some of Australias superannuation rules are just silly. Our governments want us to fund our own retirement so they dont have to pay pensions yet they continue to create wacky laws. These laws stop us from boosting nest eggs, punish us if weve been too successful at making money, and sometimes put the brakes on before we even get started.... Despite the hurdles, super remains the best place to save for the future because of its low 15 per cent tax rate during your working years, and zero per cent tax when you retire. All you have to do is get your head around the stupid super rules, and plan a little more.

09.01.2022 The New South Wales government, in concert with the powerful SCG Trust, has adopted an If we build it, they will come approach to stadium policy, and come up with the curious plan to tear down two existing stadiums and build new ones upon sites that Sydney-siders currently do not relish attending. And it does rather beg the question: why? Will more people attend sports fixtures in Sydney than they currently do if the stadiums are state-of-the-art? Will the quality of contests the entertainment that a flash new stadium will apparently draw to Sydney bring in the people to support it?

07.01.2022 Wealthy foreign gamblers are returning to Australian casinos in large numbers, and analysts are forecasting the strong growth to continue. VIP casino programs in Australia suffered massive setbacks after the arrest and jailing of Crown Resorts staff for illegally promoting gambling in mainland China last year. At Crown, revenue from the casino giants VIP program was almost halved as a result, falling from more than $1 billion in 2016 financial year to about $605 million in 2017.

06.01.2022 Michael Pascoe this this opinion piece for The Sydney Morning Herald. It is increasingly likely Australia will be dragged into the global corporate tax race to the bottom after the Republican Partys extraordinary piece of economic vandalism passed US Congress last week. The implications are manifold and none of them beneficial beyond the initial sugar hit stock markets had already priced in.

05.01.2022 With Australia’s most vulnerable in need of affordable housing, social impact investing could be the solution as long as governments mitigate the friction of a potentially lower yield. The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) recently released its study into the role of impact investment in supporting vulnerable households to achieve their housing goals.

05.01.2022 With 2017 behind them and 2018 ahead, members of self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) who take their super seriously have experienced some eventful times. In the 2017 calendar year, says financial planner Peter Crump, the first half was likely to have been spent preparing for the June 30 new super regime and the second half implementing many of the reforms. Or at least thats what should have happened.

05.01.2022 When Grace Mugabe summoned a number of supporters to her sprawling private compound at Mazowe, north of Harare, in 2014 she told them that all suggestions her husband was a wealthy man were wide of the mark. Standing in front of the 30 or so luxury villas that she has had built on the property, she insisted that the truth was that Mugabe was the poorest head of state in the world. We are blessed because we have Baba Mugabe, she said. He is the poorest president the world... over. I have never seen him asking for money from anyone. Nobody listening believed a word of it, of course. Grace enjoys a number of soubriquets in Zimbabwe, all of them reflecting a widespread belief that she enjoys squandering the countrys wealth: the First Shopper, Gucci Grace, and even DisGrace.

05.01.2022 It may seem counter-intuitive, but the secret to living to 105 is to avoid retiring, having more fun and eating less. Dr Shigeaki Hinohara was recognised for helping make Japan a world leader in longevity and was chairman emeritus at St. Lukes International University. He died in July this year at 105 and worked up until a few months before his death. In a 2009 interview with the Japan Times, Dr Hinohara said energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot.

03.01.2022 With property prices on a seemingly endless rise, it can be tough for parents to see their adult children struggling to build a life on the renters lifestyle. With the difficulty of finding a nice, affordable property in the right area, much less putting together a down payment for the current housing prices, it may seem unlikely that your children will ever get their own home and this is something youd very much like to help them with. Many parents find themselves in the position of owning the family home, now too big for just one or two people, while they watch their children fighting an uphill battle with the housing market.

02.01.2022 If the perpetrator of a crime doesnt have funds to pay compensation to victims, should the perpetrators superannuation be tapped? Thats the question fueling a Commonwealth review into the laws governing early access to superannuation. Last month, convicted paedophile and former CEO of Bega Cheese, Maurice Van Ryn, claimed he had just $26,962 to his name and as such was unable to provide compensation. However, victim advocate groups estimate he could have shifted as much as $9 million into his superannuation.

02.01.2022 The big switch is on in the mortgage market. In just the past six months the amount of interest-only (IO) loans held by the banks have dropped by around $36 billion, according the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. APRA can feel pretty chuffed with the result. It is exactly what it wanted in its push to de-risk banks balance sheet by quelling the speculative bravado of investors.... But there are obvious side effects in targeting interest-only loans.

01.01.2022 Australias senior population is set to swell by five million within 40 years, so its concerning that retirement villages are already 93 per cent full, a retirement expert has said. The latest retirement census from the Property Council of Australia and PwC has revealed that nationwide, retirement villages are 93 per cent occupied. Villages in NSW, the ACT, Victoria and Tasmania have the least room, at 94 per cent occupied while villages in South Australia have the most beds to spare, with 89 per cent occupied.

01.01.2022 Australia is likely to lag the current global economic uplift, but strong population growth and a fundamentally resilient economy should see the country outperform other developed economies over the longer term, BIS Oxford Economics head of Australian economics Sarah Hunter says.

01.01.2022 The Turnbull government has abandoned its landmark industry superannuation changes for this year, bowing to intense lobbying of crossbench senators and clearing it off the table for what is likely to be the last week of Parliament. The changes would have forced the $600 billion industry super fund sector to appoint independent directors, compelled not-for-profit funds to disclose administrative expenses, and handed more powers to regulators to police the sector.

01.01.2022 "It was not a momentary lapse of judgment. It involved 18 clients and it breached his employers trust and the clients trust." These were Magistrate Cathy McLennans words as she handed down a sentence in the Queensland Magistrates Court this week. She was describing former Commonwealth Bank of Australia senior financial planner Ricky Gillespie, who pleaded guilty to forging clients signatures, when he was working at the bank.