Tasmania regional news

Regional Manager update

Dear members

I hope you, your families and your teams are well during this unprecedented time for all of us.

CA ANZ has been closely monitoring the COVID-19 developments and taking practical action to help protect the more vulnerable members of our community.

We also understand you are all dealing a multitude of challenges within your businesses but also at home, to respond to this period of disruption with care and consideration.

As your professional body, we also wish to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of our members, candidates and people so we are moving as quickly as we can to pivot to online or virtual member support and learning or in some cases to postpone or cancel existing face to face ceremonies or events.

Please be assured that as your professional body we will balance the community need for social distancing with the designation's imperative to learn, connect, be informed and advocate for better policy and outcomes with governments and regulators to navigate through and past this event.

To see more including resources available to support you, please refer to the webpage:

https://www.charteredaccountantsanz.com/news-and-analysis/news/a-message-to-members-with-regard-to-novel-coronavirus

On another note, you have hopefully received the first edition of our fortnightly email newsletter outlining upcoming events, opportunities to engage, member service offerings and significant announcements.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any feedback about either of these items or any other aspects of your membership at andrew.quinlan@charteredaccountantsanz.com

Upcoming Events and activities

As mentioned above, we will be delivering a range of events and activities online in the immediate and longer term and once we are able to begin face to face delivery again we will confirm details with you.

As always, please feel free to share any feedback with me and I look forward to speaking with or seeing you throughout the year.

Andrew Quinlan CA
Regional Manager – Tasmania & Victoria

Regional Chair's Update

I hope all Tasmanian CAs are staying safe as we all do the best we can to work our way through the Coronavirus pandemic.

I know from personal experience the disappointment caused by cancelled overseas trips, as well as the uncertainty in the local communities that have unfortunately already led to some employers having to make the difficult decisions to put people off. From an employer's perspective I know, I and many businesses are also dealing with the disruption of putting in place the mechanisms and policies for widespread working from home for staff.

While people's health and safety rightly remains the primary consideration in times like these, it is impossible for those in our line of work not to also think about the economic impact of COVID-19, both broadly and for the businesses and organisations we work in, advise or manage.

We know all too well the hardship a business can face when it takes a large hit to revenue, especially at the unprecedented levels we have seen across multiple industries.

And as trusted advisors, our profession has a vital role to play in helping these businesses stay viable and get back to their feet after what will realistically be a very challenging period for the foreseeable future.

Many of you will be on the front-line assisting SME clients to identify which of the new incentives and concessions they might be able to claim from both the Federal and State Government stimulus packages.

CA ANZ Tax Leader Michael Croker has picked out four Federal incentives he thinks are particularly good in an article here, including increasing the threshold of business purchases eligible for tax deductions and access to cash payments to help hire staff.

Another CA ANZ resource regarding COVID-19 which is worth a read to assist you in helping your clients and own business and organisations is Ten emerging business and tax impacts from coronavirus (COVID-19).

On a local front, the State Government have delivered focussed concessions for the hardest hit industries such as hospitality and tourism, as well as payroll tax concessions for SMEs with an annual payroll of up to $5 million. If you haven't checked them out already, details of the State Government's stimulus package are available here.

It is more important than ever that business and government work together in these testing times and I'm sure we'll see more developments in this space. At this stage I can only encourage you to be fully aware of the importance of the role CAs can play in helping the Tasmanian economy through this period – and I'm confident you'll all be a great asset to the state.

For those looking for some guidance or advice on how to manage their business at this time, the TCCI has set up a Business Hotline which can be reached by dialling 1300 559 112.

I would also suggest that if you are facing any professional or ethical dilemmas during this unprecedented time to contact your Regional Manager, Andrew Quinlan andrew.quinlan@charteredaccountantsanz.com who can put you in touch with one of the experienced members of the CA Advisory Group. More about the support offered by the CA Advisory Group is available here:

On a lighter note, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce to you one of our three new Tasmanian Council Members for 2020, Phillip Fulton.

In his day-to-day employment Phillip is the CFO for St. Lukes Health, a role he has worked in for nearly eight years and sees him responsible for the finances of one of Tasmania's largest private businesses.

Prior to joining St. Lukes, Phillip was a Director at KPMG, where he worked for 23 years, specialising in management accounting and gaining invaluable knowledge of a wide array of industries within the state including fishing, manufacturing, IT, medical and motor vehicles.

The Council is (respectfully) looking forward to taking advantage of Phillip's difficult-to-rival knowledge of the Tasmanian business landscape in order to help us continue to make a difference for our members and the wider Tasmanian community.

As always, if there's anything you would like Council's assistance with, whether it is in relation to your membership or perhaps a query regarding COVID-19 in the accounting context, don't hesitate to be in touch.

Look after yourselves,
Lyndal Kimpton