By Hamsini Renugadevan, Financial Accountant

The legal conditions and obligations of employing staff are quite intricate and it is imperative that businesses stay up to date with changes to workplace relations legislation. 

Last week I attended a workplace relations training course provided by the Australian Federation of Employers and Industries. The course covered the legal basis of employment with a great emphasis on new industrial relations law, contracts pertaining to employment and the subsequent entitlements that employees are prescribed in line with the National Employment Standards and Fair Work Act 2009.

By David Lamb, Azure Group wealth specialist

The recent television campaign by BT once again raises the question whether shares out perform property.

This is a perennial question. So, what is the question and the claims.

Roughly it goes like this:

1. Property has performed at say a compound rate of 9% for the last 30 years.
2. Shares have averaged 10% p.a over the same period.
3. In both cases returns equal rents/dividends plus capital growth.

Done like this shares win every time.

But hear are a few things to think about.

Last night, was Azure Group’s second CFO Networking event, held in conjunction with the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and by all accounts it was a success.

Nearly 40 CFOs and high level finance professionals attended the Institute’s offices on Erskine Street in Sydney. The topic for the evening was capital raising.  

The two speakers of the evening were very well received.

Firstly Craig Cartner from Archer Capital[i] spoke on private equity in Australia since the GFC and what Archer Capital particularly looked for when investing in businesses. Craig shared some interesting insights, like over the last five years in Australia there was a total Private Equity investment of $5.7 billion into 570 Australian companies and also in the last five years the amount of Private Equity monies raised amounted to $18.5 billion compared to $8.7 billion invested.

Next to present was Paul Miller from Deutsch Miller[ii] who spoke about the legalities of capital raising for both private and public companies. Paul shared his knowledge of whether a business should produce disclosure documents, including the current exemptions, types of disclosure documents and content requirements (see below for Paul's presentation).

Initiated by Azure Group, the purpose of the CFO Network events is to provide CFOs working with small and medium sized enterprises the opportunity to network with fellow colleagues and draw on each other’s knowledge and expertise.

Being a CFO of a SME brings its own set of challenges. More often than not they operate independently with limited interaction with other CFOs and at times they lack the opportunity to access ideas, feedback and advice from their peers.

The next CFO Network event will be held on 7 September, once again at the Institute. The topic will focus on debt raising and bank loans and we’ll have two great speakers from ANZ Bank, a business lending specialist and an economist.

Once more we’d like to express our appreciation to the Institute of Chartered Accountants for their support and cooperation in bringing the CFO Network to life.

The all important end of financial year is approaching and with it another tax year will be over.

Now is the time that you should be considering your tax position to ensure that you don’t end up paying more tax than you should.