THE Australian Retailers Association (ARA) today congratulated the NSW Government on successfully implementing significant changes to the NSW Retail Leases Act, to increase transparency and fairness between NSW retail businesses and landlords.

ARA Executive Director, Russell Zimmerman, said the improved retail lease protections and streamlined processes will create stronger and fairer relationships between retail tenants and landlords.

“As the retail industry is constantly evolving it’s great to see the NSW Government implementing progressive changes that ensure the legislation remain relevant to all retailers throughout Australia,” Mr Zimmerman said.

The Retail Leases Amendment (Review) Bill 2016 was presented to NSW Parliament on Tuesday to introduce reforms to the Retail Leases Act 1994 to improve fairness in the marketplace.

“The amended Act will give retailers a better understanding of retail centre values and side deals, ensuring leasing costs are transparent for both large and small retail businesses,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“These significant changes will ensure greater transparency and certainty about retail lease deals during negotiations and simplify the process of transferring a retail lease.”

A Retail Code of Industry Practice has been developed by the ARA, Franchise Council and Pharmacy Guild who have managed with the State Government to have the Shopping Centre Council of Australia agree to sign the code.

“The Code will address information asymmetry and encourage the reporting of sales and occupancy costs by category, giving retailers a better understanding of how a shopping centre is performing,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“This Code allows retailers greater transparency when negotiating lease deals, not only enhancing competition in the retailing space, but also putting retailers on a level playing field with landlords,” he said.

About the Australian Retailers Association:

Founded in 1903, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is the retail industry’s peak representative body representing Australia’s $300 billion sector, which employs more than 1.2 million people. The ARA works to ensure retail success by informing, protecting, advocating, educating and saving money for its 5,000 independent and national retail members throughout Australia. For more information, visit www.retail.org.au or call 1300 368 041.

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APPLICATIONS are now open for the Festivals Australia program.

Funding is given to activities which can include but are not limited to a parade, performance, workshop, installation, or exhibition held as part of a festival or a significant one-off community.

$1.2 million is given each financial year for high-quality arts and cultural projects in regional and remote Australia that support community participation and audience engagement.

Applications close on Friday March 24 at 5pm AEDST.

The guidelines and application form are available on the Festivals Australia page arts.gov.au/Festivals

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THE Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) is calling on the Government to introduce simpler structure options for small business to streamline and reduce regulation and red tape and/or extend the use of safe harbours.

“The IPA has long held the aspiration of achieving the simplification of the small business taxation system through the application of a structure which eliminates the need for multiple structures,” said IPA chief executive officer, Andrew Conway.

“Multiple structures are commonly needed to achieve tax outcomes which would otherwise be unavailable through a single entity. 

“Small businesses seek measures which promote asset protection, the retention of profits for working capital, lower tax rates, access to CGT discounts, succession planning and income distribution.  A combination of entities is generally used to achieve these outcomes.

“When a small business operates through separate legal structures, the current taxation system treats the structures as taxation entities separate from their owners, resulting in a quantum leap in tax compliance and complexity.

“International evidence shows entities specifically designed for small businesses provide a number of advantages such as asset protection, income streaming and retention of after tax profits.

“A simplified small business entity regime which combines the attributes of companies, trusts and partnerships could significantly reduce regulations and red tape for small businesses.

“The creation of this new small business structure would allow small business entities to use a single simplified structure rather than the current complicated ownership structure such as trusts.

“If such a structure allowed the optional retention of income at the corporate tax rate, it would allow most of the benefits that can currently be obtained via the use of a company and discretionary trust via a cheaper and simpler vehicle to administer.

“It is most unfortunate that the taxation of trusts has not been rewritten and updated to reduce complexity, despite numerous recent announcements to this effect.

“The compliance burden from the use of trusts to the small business sector must not be underestimated.  A simplified taxation of trusts regime could go a long way in creating a flexible small business structure of choice,” said Mr Conway.

publicaccountants.org.au

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Business and philanthropists are invited to partner with the Federal Government in an innovative approach to saving our threatened species with the launch of a new prospectus.

The Prospectus is an invitation to business, industry and the philanthropic sector, both big and small, to join us in protecting species such as the platypus, bilby, cassowary and numbat.

The Prospectus includes more than 50 community-based projects that are ready to be put into action.

The project proposals are backed by the science and the passionate local communities who are already on the ground across Australia working hard to save our species.

The prospectus builds on the Government’s links to Australian businesses through the Threatened Species Strategy.

Already BHP Billiton is investing $5.4 million to help save the world’s biggest green turtle hatchery on Raine Island in the Great Barrier Reef, while companies like Google have contributed by building and launching a new mobile app to support citizen scientists to record and track platypuses.

In 2014 the Coalition Government appointed Australia’s first Threatened Species Commissioner and a year later launched the Threatened Species Strategy, a national science-based plan to save our native plants and animals.

Our approach has mobilised more than $210 million in support of threatened species and thanks to almost 1,000 projects across Australia under the Threatened Species Strategy, the futures of many of our animals and plants are more secure.

Trajectories of species like our endangered mountain pygmy possum and critically endangered helmeted honeyeater are already turning around.

Today’s announcement also coincides with an agreement between our very own Taronga Zoo and the San Diego Zoo to exchange two remarkable animals – the Australian platypus and the African Okapi.

San Diego Zoo already has custodianship of four Tasmanian Devils which are raising awareness in the US of this very iconic species plight and Australia’s fight to save them.

A copy of the Prospectus is available via: www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/threatened-species-prospectus

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