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My name is Mark Lazell. I'm the Business  Website Director for Healy Consultants Group PLC   and I work out of our Singapore office. I have  with me this afternoon, Caroline Devet and she   is an accounting and tax officer, who is based  out of our office in Johor Bahru in Malaysia. Good afternoon Caroline Good afternoon Mark and how's everything with  you today Caroline? yeah I'm good how are you? Yeah, very well thank you. It's nice to speak with  you. This is the first time that you and I are   doing a podcast, so it's always nice to introduce  new staff to this initiative so welcome Caroline. If you don't mind me, asking just  introduce yourself to the listeners, please   tell us what is your role at Healy Consultants  and how long have you been with the firm? Yep, sure, Hi everyone, so I'm  Caroline. I joined Healy Consultants in   2019 and I have been with the firm for two years. So I'm working under the accounting and tax  department as an Accounting and Tax Officer. So   my role in Healy Consultant is to  assist our multinational clients with   the Accounting and Tax obligation  in their respective jurisdiction. Very good, so in terms of your specific areas  of expertise, Would you say that you have any   particular skills or strengths that  add value to our team Caroline? Yeah I would say I'm expert in  Australia Accounting and Tax matters. Fantastic that's interesting, I mean, I know  that Australia is one of our most important and   popular jurisdictions among our clients. I also  believe that the Australian tax system requires   very specialist knowledge. Can you first of all,  tell us briefly about some of the Australian   engagements that you are handling or  have handled over the last year or so? Yeah sure, so basically I'm working on annual  accounting and tax filings for dormant and active   entities such as applying for Audit relief,  preparing and lodging unaudited financial   statements, submitting tax returns with ASIC and  ATU besides that, I'm also working on Australian   Monthly payroll quarterly GST and superannuation  filings for active and dominant entities as well. Additionally, I'm also handling a significant  global entity Accounting and Tax obligations. Very good, in your opinion as an expert  in this area Caroline, what would you say   are some of the challenges of the Australian  tax system that our clients face usually our   clients have a very limited understanding  or knowledge about Australia tax matters? So recently, we have faced a situation  where one of our clients are required to   report a French benefit tax return with ATU.  However they are not aware of this filing,   so let me just keep a brief explanation  on what exactly fringe benefit return is. Sure. So a Fringe benefit is a payment to an employee  but in a different form to salary so an FBT is   paid by employers for certain benefits they  provide to their employees or their employees   family or other associates the FBT applies even  if the benefit is provided by a third party   under an arrangement with the employer.  So FBT is separate from income tax return   and it was calculated on the taxable value of  the Fringe benefit. So the employer must have   assessed their FBT liability for the FBT  year, which is starting from first April to   31st march and they also have to lodge an  FBT return with eight on an annual basis. So let me just give a let - put it in a simple  word - so if an employer reimbursing their   employees for any expenses, they should consider  whether the expenses that they are claiming   are FBT-able or not if the reimbursement is for  expenses income specifically for a business,   then it is not FBT-able however when there are  reimbursement of a personal nature then there are   benefit arises from employment for example like  payment of health insurance or medical expenses,   these are of personal nature and therefore any  reimbursement will be a benefit provided by   the business and as such FBT-able. So how  I usually help our clients in this matter   if the engage is prepared, I can usually detect  when they are reimbursing the employees while   preparing the monthly pay sleeps and I will advise  them whether the expenses they are reimbursing   are FBT-able or not and if yes I will advise  them ingly what action has to be taken. Very good Caroline, thank you for such a thorough  explanation, very interesting and I'm sure our   listeners will appreciate that  as well. Finally to cut this   to make this as succinct as possible, what do  you see as some of the most recent developments   or changes in the Australian tax system that  our multinational clients should be aware of? To be honest there are a lot of things that   our multinational client should be  aware of this Australian tax system. First of all, I would say the financial year  and in Australia, how to determine their first   financial year and in Australia and so let me just  briefly explain on how to determine this financial   year and so if they are incorporating a company  before 30th June. So the first financial period   will be from the date of incorporation to 30th  June so - for example, if they are incorporating   a company on 5th June 2021, so their first  financial year and will be on 30th June 2021   even though it's dominant just 3 weeks period they  are still obliged to prepare a financial statement   and submit a tax return with the authorities but  client can still change their financial year and   to 31st December or any period, if they would like  to but they must notify ASIC and give you about   the changes as soon as practical most importantly.  The financial year cannot be longer than 12 months   other than that, the most important part is about  the audit release. So all large proprietary and   small proprietary controlled by foreign entities  should prepare an audited financial statement and   lodge the same with ASIC within from once from  the financial year end unless ASIC grants them   a relief. So client can apply for an audit  relief with ASIC within four months after   the financial year end so Healy Consultants  can help our client to apply for the relief   by preparing the bot resolution and the necessary  form and summary with ASIC before the due date. So once ASIC approved, our client will not be  required to prepare an audited financial statement   but they are still required to prepare an  unaudited financial statement and launch the same   with ASIC within the due date so other than that,  the client also should verify whether they are a   significant global entity or not so um because  this is the most important thing if they are   consider themselves as a significant global entity  then they have some reporting obligations such as   CBC reporting and also a general purpose financial  statement obligation if they are a corporate tax   entity. So I think these are the most important  factor that our clients should be aware of. Caroline that's fascinating and  again thank you very much for your   detailed insight there, I'm sure your  expert knowledge is of great value to   our clients and obviously your colleagues as  well in the Accounting and Tax department, so   thank you very much for your time  Caroline. I very much appreciate it   and we look forward to speaking again with you  sometime soon on other tax and accounting issues. Thank you so much, thanks Mark, it's  always a pleasure talking with you thank you have a good day bye