Business

Business basics for the holidays

2 MIN READ October 30, 2019
Christmas is fast-approaching and now’s the time to get everything in order for your business for the holiday period. Whether you close down over the break or it’s your busiest time of year, here are some important business basics to consider this season.

Christmas expenses

Staff end-of-year celebrations

If you’re having a Christmas party or a get-together to celebrate the end of the year with your team, you can claim some of the costs. You can claim half the cost of staff gifts that include food, drink or entertainment, and half of your holiday party expenses may be claimed in your income tax return if the expenses are related to your business.

Client gifts

If you’re planning to send out Christmas gifts to your clients, you can usually claim the costs of gifts as a business expense. If the gift is food, drink or entertainment related, such as a hamper or restaurant vouchers, then only half of the cost can be claimed.

Charitable donations

If you’re planning to donate food or other gifts to a group in need this Christmas season, you can deduct 100% of the cost of this. So as well as doing something charitable out of the goodness of your heart, your business can benefit too!

Staff remuneration

Public holidays

As December and January both have quite a few public holidays, you need to make sure that you’re paying staff correctly. When there’s a public holiday on a day your employee is usually at work, they are entitled to a paid day off. You can also only require employees to work a public holiday if it’s in their employment contract so make sure you take another look over this before the end of the year.

If your staff are working over the holidays and their work day falls on a public holiday, you need to pay them at least time and a half, and give them another paid day off later. If they don’t normally work on that day, then they won’t get this alternative day off but you’ll still need to pay them at least time and a half for the hours worked.

If you’re preparing your business for the holiday break, get in touch with our friendly accounting team – we can give you expert guidance, advice and important tips to help you enjoy the holiday period with no stress!


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