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The government of Victoria has proposed several amendments to the state’s property taxation laws.
New amendments explained
Under the amendments, the revenue office hopes to expand vacant residential land tax to all vacant residential land in Victoria from the 2025 tax year. The amendments also expand the definition of vacant
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A recent McKinnon survey showed that 50% of Australia’s workforce is covered by some form of a restraint of trade or non-compete clause.
But how airtight are these clauses and can they be enforced?
Types of restraints of trade
Common restrictions of trade include:
Confidentiality clauses Non-solicitation clauses Non-compete
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Investors who rent their property out on short-stay accommodation platforms like Airbnb and Stayz will soon face an additional tax charge.
The Victorian government has announced it plans to introduce a 7.5% levy on short-stay rental platforms, effective from 1 January 2025. The fees collected will fund Homes Victoria, supporting
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Before starting construction or renovations, there are several legal aspects you should take note of. This will protect both you and your builder so that the project runs smoothly.
Signing a written contract
By law, you must have a written contract for work worth more than $10,000. This can include
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You may need to look at the contracts you use in your business because, come 9 November, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will prohibit businesses from using unfair contract terms.
According to the new regulations, courts will have the authority to impose significant penalties on businesses using contracts
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As Australia’s spring selling season kicks off, some vendors might consider going down the do-it-yourself (DIY) conveyancing route to save money. But while it can be tempting, particularly given the current cost of living, there are many risks involved in managing your own conveyancing.
Providing legal protection
When using a
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As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to develop, businesses and consumers are becoming more concerned about how to manage the relationship between privacy and AI.
For industry and the public sector, AI, machine learning and using big data has opened new avenues for growth and development. But this brings with it
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Melbourne might be Australia’s most affordable city to rent a house, with a median rent of $520 per week during the June quarter, according to Domain’s house price report.
But nonetheless, the state government recently indicated it’s considering rent controls as part of a new housing package. The rent controls
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In July, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services handed down its long-awaited report into the effectiveness of Australia’s corporate insolvency laws.
The inquiry has been ten months in the making, during which the committee heard from insolvency and legal practitioners, government agencies, unions, creditors (both large and
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UFC Gym Australia entered voluntary administration last month “after becoming embroiled in a messy $5 million court case with several disgruntled franchisee owners”, according to news.com.au.
What makes this story important is not the specifics of the company or court case but the lesson it teaches: when it comes to business
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Barely a month goes by without reports of a property scam making the news, including the recent example of a Western Australian real estate agency that had more than $300,000 of buyers’ money stolen from its trust account.
What these scams have in common is that criminals have developed incredibly
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Employers generally know they could be held accountable if employees are injured on the job. But they may assume their accountability is limited to physical injuries.
However, a recent High Court judgment found an employer’s duty of care may be extended to mental or psychiatric matters.
The case dealt with
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The Victorian government has introduced a new temporary land tax surcharge from the 2024 land tax year. This tax is in addition to the existing land tax and will last for 10 years (until 30 June 2033). The proceeds will be used to repay some of the state’s Covid-19 debts
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If you’re renovating or building a domestic structure, you need to hire a registered builder if the work is worth more than $10,000. You also need a written ‘major domestic building contract’.
In this context, building work includes:
Constructing a home, including the landscaping, paving, retaining structures, driveways, fencing,
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In a recent court case, Mazda was found to have breached Australian consumer law because they gave customers the run-around by refusing to refund or replace their faulty cars.
In Australia, the products we buy are required to meet these seven consumer guarantees:
1. Be of acceptable quality
The product
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If a customer leaves an unfair online review, your first step could be to ask the customer or site owner to remove the review. But if they refuse, can you take the matter further?
In NSW, a disgruntled customer left a one-star review about a painter claiming the painter “caused
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The construction of 1,700 dwellings is in limbo after builder Porter Davis Homes collapsed. Of these, about 250 homes were close to completion, according to the liquidator Grant Thornton.
Although several companies wanted to buy some of Porter Davis Homes’ assets, no buyers were willing to buy all the assets
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When you use a brand name or specific mark, you should register it as a trademark to prevent other Australian businesses from using it.
Before registering a trademark, IP Australia will check that there aren’t competing trademarks in Australia, but not internationally.
Registering a trademark protects it in all the
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Currently, buy-now-pay-layer services like Afterpay, Zip and Klarna are exempt from laws designed to protect consumers from taking out credit they can’t afford.
That’s because BNPL providers don’t charge customers interest so, technically, the product they provide isn’t credit.
However, following concerns consumers are racking up unaffordable debts, the sector
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Melbourne-based Hallbury Homes entered administration in January, with 50 projects on its books, according to The Property Tribune.
While Hallbury Homes is the latest casualty in Australia’s embattled building industry, challenging trading conditions aren’t limited to the construction sector – with nearly 4,000 corporate insolvencies occurring over the 2021-22 financial
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The federal government has announced that the Modernising Business Register program will be independently reviewed after Treasury estimated it would cost $1 billion more than originally budgeted for under the previous government.
The Modernising Business Register project will see more than 30 ASIC business registers consolidated into a single platform
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A property settlement can be delayed for many reasons, such as finance issues, problems with the property or the buyer being unable to sell their existing home.
In Victoria, if the buyer is unable to settle on the settlement date, the seller can charge penalty interest. The exact amount will
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Company directors need to verify their identity and apply for a director ID as part of a new statutory requirement that came into effect on 1 November 2021.
A director ID Is a unique 15-digit identifier given to directors who have verified their identity with Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS).
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The New South Wales government is planning to overhaul its property tax regime by giving first home buyers the choice between making a one-off, upfront stamp duty payment or paying a smaller, annual land tax instead.
This prompted the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, Housing Industry Association and Australian Property
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Cash flow is the lifeblood of every small business, which is why it’s challenging for businesses to meet their expenses when customers are slow to pay their bills.
Unfortunately, though, it’s a common problem, with more than half of Australia’s big businesses failing to pay their small suppliers on time,
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With less than 100 days to go until Victoria’s state election, the Housing Industry Association has called for the next government to reduce the tax burden on housing.
HIA argues that state property-based taxes impose a significant financial burden on Victorian homebuyers with:
Victorians paying the highest rate of
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Spring selling season is here. But if you’re considering listing your property on the market, it’s important to know what you’re legally required to disclose, especially as there have been some small – but significant – amendments to the Sale of Land Act 1962 (Vic).
These amendments to section 12
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It was only four years ago, in September 2018, that maximum penalties under the Australian Consumer Law were last increased from $1.1 million to $10 million.
But the new federal government wants the price of misconduct to be high enough to deter non-compliance, so it’s released a draft bill proposing
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Spring selling season is here. But if you’re considering listing your property on the market, it’s important to know what you’re legally required to disclose, especially as there have been some small – but significant – amendments to the Sale of Land Act
This post was originally published on this site
With less than 100 days to go until Victoria’s state election, the Housing Industry Association has called for the next government to reduce the tax burden on housing.
HIA argues that state property-based taxes impose a significant financial burden on Victorian homebuyers with:
Victorians paying the highest rate of
This post was originally published on this site
It was only four years ago, in September 2018, that maximum penalties under the Australian Consumer Law were last increased from $1.1 million to $10 million.
But the new federal government wants the price of misconduct to be high enough to deter non-compliance, so it’s released a draft bill proposing
This post was originally published on this site
Cash flow is the lifeblood of every small business, which is why it’s challenging for businesses to meet their expenses when customers are slow to pay their bills.
Unfortunately, though, it’s a common problem, with more than half of Australia’s big businesses failing to pay their small suppliers on time,
This post was originally published on this site
The New South Wales government is planning to overhaul its property tax regime by giving first home buyers the choice between making a one-off, upfront stamp duty payment or paying a smaller, annual land tax instead.
This prompted the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, Housing Industry Association and Australian Property
This post was originally published on this site
Company directors need to verify their identity and apply for a director ID as part of a new statutory requirement that came into effect on 1 November 2021.
A director ID Is a unique 15-digit identifier given to directors who have verified their identity with Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS).
This post was originally published on this site
A property settlement can be delayed for many reasons, such as finance issues, problems with the property or the buyer being unable to sell their existing home.
In Victoria, if the buyer is unable to settle on the settlement date, the seller can charge penalty interest. The exact amount will
This post was originally published on this site
Commercial disputes are inevitable no matter the industry.
Take, for example, a long-running dispute between construction giant CIMIC and engineering services firm JKC Australia, which has just ended with CIMIC agreeing to make a $492.5 million payment.
That obviously wasn’t a good result for CIMIC. But the battle, which lasted
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A perfect storm of rising costs, supply issues and labour shortages has hit the Australian building industry, compounding problems caused by Covid-19 shutdowns.
As a result, several building firms have collapsed in recent months – including industry giants Probuild and Condev.
Master Builders Victoria has already warned these challenging business
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The Victorian government has encouraged applications for the $60 million Small Business Ventilation Program.
The funding is to help eligible public-facing small businesses improve their ventilation in areas accessible to customers and reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.
The program offers two types of support:
Ventilation Rebate – A
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The high-profile collapse of Probuild and Condev has shone a light on the perfect storm facing the Australian construction industry, with rising costs and supply chain issues putting pressure on many firms.
And now there is a new threat to add to that list: a worsening skills shortage.
Global consultancy
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The Victorian government handed down its election-year budget earlier this month – boosted by a $15 billion windfall in land taxes and stamp duty from the booming property market.
While revenue from land tax is expected to increase to $4.8 billion next financial year, stamp duty revenue is projected to
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After almost two years, Australia is reopening its international borders again to fully vaccinated travellers. The move will likely give a significant boost to our economy, thanks to the return of tourists, business travellers and migrants.
So if you’ve been considering starting a business, this could be your year to
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Metropolitan Melbourne’s land market ended 2021 on a strong footing, according to Oliver Hume Quarterly Market Insights.
The report found median lot prices in the city climbed by 6% over the December quarter and 11.3% over the year to hit a new record high of $355,000.
That strong performance was
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The Victorian Government has extended the Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme (CTRS) for two months until 15 March 2022.
CTRS is designed to support struggling retail and commercial tenants and encourage renegotiation of terms.
Alongside the extension come new regulations. While the 2022 regulations are broadly similar to the previous CTRS
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If you’re like many Victorians, you’ve probably dreamed of owning a pub, whether for commercial or lifestyle reasons.
There are several reasons why it might make more sense to buy an established pub rather than starting one from scratch. You get a business with an existing customer base and can
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It’s natural to assume that since you own your property, you can do what you like with it – subject to planning, of course. But this might not necessarily be the case, particularly if there’s a restrictive covenant hiding in the small print of your certificate of title.
What’s a restrictive
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It’s not uncommon for customers to skip or gloss over a company’s terms and conditions. So you may think: “If customers don’t bother reading the fine print, why should I bother creating them?”
Well, there are good reasons not to overlook or minimise the importance of a detailed set
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What’s in a name? Well, consider Marion Robert Morrison or Norma Jeane Mortenson. Neither has quite the same ring to it as John Wayne or Marilyn Monroe, right?
And while you’re not trying to make it in Hollywood, your choice of business name matters too. That’s because a business name
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On 15 of April 2021, the Federal Court of Australia ordered two company directors to compensate their customers personally, a claim that has rarely been substantiated in Australian law. The pair were also ordered to pay a substantial fine and were disqualified from managing a company for three (3) years.
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It can be a seductive idea. Rather than starting a hospitality business from scratch, why not skip the start-up stage altogether by buying into a franchise?
And it’s a business model with a long illustrious history. Albert Singer developed the first franchise contract to help him sell more sewing machines
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Signing the contract of sale isn’t the last stage of a home purchase. Rather, it’s the beginning of a process that only ends on settlement day. This is the day when the agreed purchase price is paid to the seller and the buyer takes legal possession of the property.
Unfortunately,