Daily Australia Tax Update: 7 September 2026 : Trust Tax Election Details Revealed, 18 September Submissions Close & September Compliance Dates Confirmed

by Ariful | Sep 7, 2026 | Business

TITLE: September 2026 Tax Compliance Update: Trust Elections, ATO Debt Recovery, and Payday Super

Australia’s tax compliance agenda is moving quickly this September.

Treasury has released detailed exposure draft legislation for the proposed 30% minimum tax on certain discretionary trusts. The ATO is also increasing pressure on unpaid tax debt, while employers must now operate under the new Payday Super rules.

This update covers the key developments affecting businesses, trustees and employers across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra.

Review the trust tax election before the 18 September deadline

Treasury released the exposure draft legislation on 3 September 2026. The consultation closes on 18 September 2026.

The proposed 30% minimum tax would apply to certain discretionary trusts from 1 July 2028. Treasury has also published the draft electable regime, giving trustees more detail about how an Excluded Election Trust (EET) may operate.

Read the Treasury consultation materials and the official ministerial announcement.

Understand how the EET election works

The draft legislation allows an eligible trustee to make an EET election and nominate beneficiaries with fixed percentage entitlements to both:

• Trust income.
• Trust capital.

The nominated percentages must generally total 100%. The income and capital percentages must also correspond.

This means you cannot treat the election as a broad intention to distribute income. You would need to operate the trust consistently with the formal nomination.

The election is available to a trust in existence on 1 July 2028. The election and nomination must generally be notified to the Commissioner by the earlier of:

• The due date for lodging the trust’s return for the relevant year.
• The date the return is actually lodged.

The practical deadline will usually fall in the 2028–29 income year.

Do not treat the election as completely irreversible

The draft allows only one EET election for a trust. A previous election that has been revoked cannot simply be made again.

However, the legislation also contains future-year revocation mechanics. A trustee may revoke the election for future years by giving notice within the required timeframe.

The election can also be automatically revoked if the trustee does not follow the nominated allocations. If that occurs, the trust may again be treated as a minimum tax trust. Present entitlements for the relevant year may also be disregarded, leaving the trustee exposed to tax under the proposed rules.

Some limited variation rules are proposed. These include certain situations involving:

• The death of a nominated individual.
• Relationship breakdown orders, agreements or awards.
• Changes affecting an eligible company beneficiary.

You should not assume that a commercial distribution decision can be changed later without consequences.

Check the trust deed and distribution process now

Before considering an EET election, complete this checklist:

1. Review the trust deed. Confirm that the trustee has the power to make the proposed distributions and nominations.
2. Map the beneficiaries. Identify who can legally benefit under the deed on 1 July 2028.
3. Test the percentages. Ensure income and capital allocations can be applied consistently.
4. Review corporate beneficiaries. Check whether each company meets the proposed eligible company requirements.
5. Document governance controls. Your accounting and distribution workflow must prevent accidental deviations.
6. Consider a private binding ruling where appropriate. This may help address uncertainty about how the rules apply to a specific trust.

The proposed fixed trust definition is also important. Treasury is seeking to replace the existing ITAA 1936 concept with a definition focused on whether there are material discretionary elements. Certain commercial trust structures may fall outside the minimum tax where beneficiaries have clear and enforceable rights.

Compare election and restructuring options

The EET election is intended to provide an alternative to restructuring. It may avoid some resettlement and state stamp duty concerns because the trust does not need to transfer its assets to a new entity.

The draft also proposes expanded CGT rollover relief for taxpayers who restructure. The relief is intended to operate for three years from 1 July 2027, effectively allowing eligible transfers by 30 June 2030. A four-year clawback or integrity period should be reviewed carefully before any transfer is implemented.

Other issues remain relevant, including:

• Possible double taxation involving corporate beneficiaries where no election is made.
• The operation of trust-to-trust offsets.
• Resettlement risks.
• State and territory stamp duty.
• The interaction between trust distributions, company tax and franking credits.

Do not wait for the final law before organising your records. The exposure draft may change, but the review process is already valuable.

Meet the September 2026 compliance dates

The following deadlines should be added to your Australian compliance calendar.

21 September 2026: August monthly activity statements

Businesses reporting monthly must lodge and pay their August 2026 activity statement by 21 September 2026.

Check your:

• GST sales and purchases.
• PAYG withholding.
• PAYG instalments.
• Payroll records.
• Bank and payment-platform reconciliations.

Complete your bookkeeping before the deadline. This gives you time to correct missing invoices, marketplace data and payroll adjustments.

30 September 2026: Pillar Two returns

Certain multinational enterprise groups with a 31 March 2025 fiscal year-end must lodge their:

• GloBE Information Return.
• Domestic Minimum Tax Return.

These Pillar Two obligations require coordinated group data. Confirm whether your group is within scope and whether another group entity is responsible for lodging.

30 September 2026: payroll and trust reports

Several other reports may also be due on 30 September:

• PAYG withholding payment summary annual report for eligible small withholders using a tax agent.
• STP finalisation for closely held payees where the employer also has arm’s-length employees.
• Annual TFN withholding report for closely held trusts.

Review each obligation separately. A business may have one, several or none of these reporting requirements.

Respond early to the ATO’s $115 billion debt push

The ATO Commissioner has confirmed that the ATO’s tax debt book has reached approximately $115 billion. The ATO is focusing more heavily on taxpayers who do not engage.

Potential enforcement action includes:

• Director Penalty Notices.
• Garnishee notices.
• External debt collection.
• Disclosure of eligible business tax debts to credit reporting bureaus.
• Legal recovery action.

The ATO has indicated that business tax debts above relevant thresholds may be disclosed where there is no meaningful engage

Digital Business Growth & Strategy Weekly: Three Growth Plays for Scaling SMEs : Plan, Fund and Execute Your Next Expansion Move

by Ariful | Sep 6, 2026 | Business

TITLE: Choosing Your Next Growth Play: A Financial Guide for UK Businesses

Growth becomes harder when every opportunity looks urgent.

You could improve your UK operation, enter the USA or EU, launch on another marketplace, or develop a new product line. The danger is spreading your cash, people and attention across all of them at once.

For the next quarter, choose one growth play. Build the financial plan first. Then execute with clear compliance controls and decision triggers.

This guide covers three practical routes for ecommerce brands, SaaS businesses, agencies and fast-growing UK Limited Companies.

Start with the numbers before choosing your growth play

Before committing to a strategy, build a simple financial dashboard.

Calculate contribution margin, not just revenue

Revenue shows activity. Contribution margin shows whether growth is helping.

For each product, service or channel, calculate:

Contribution margin = Sales price − variable costs

Include:

• Product or delivery costs
• Marketplace fees
• Payment processing fees
• Fulfilment and shipping
• Returns and refunds
• Advertising directly linked to sales
• VAT, GST or Sales Tax that you cannot recover
• Currency conversion costs

A channel that produces £100,000 of sales but only £8,000 of contribution may be less attractive than one producing £50,000 with £15,000 of contribution.

Maintain a 13-week cash-flow forecast

Update a rolling 13-week forecast every week. Show:

• Opening bank balance
• Customer receipts
• Payroll
• Supplier payments
• Advertising spend
• VAT, GST and Sales Tax reserves
• Corporation Tax or other tax provisions
• Loan repayments
• Stock purchases
• One-off expansion costs
• Closing cash balance

This will show you when a profitable plan could still create a cash crisis. It also gives you an earlier warning if customer payments slow or inventory costs rise.

Ring-fence tax cash

Do not treat tax collected from customers as available working capital.

Create separate reserves for:

• UK VAT
• EU VAT
• US Sales Tax
• Canadian GST/HST
• Australian GST
• Payroll deductions
• Corporation Tax

Ring-fencing improves payment discipline and reduces the risk of funding growth with money that belongs to a tax authority.

If you need a clearer view of your current VAT position, use the Sterlinx Global VAT calculator as an initial planning tool. Confirm final obligations against the relevant tax authority and your actual transaction data.

Growth Play One: Deepen profitability in your home market

The safest growth opportunity is often the market you already understand.

This play means improving your UK operation before adding a new country, entity or channel. You might raise contribution margin, improve retention, increase average order value or reduce fulfilment waste.

Choose this play when your core operation has untapped capacity

Focus on the UK first if:

• Your best products are already generating repeat demand.
• Your customer acquisition cost is rising faster than contribution margin.
• Your stock, fulfilment or support processes are inefficient.
• Your cash position is too tight for international expansion.
• You have not tested pricing, bundles or retention properly.
• Your reporting does not yet show channel-level profitability.

Useful actions include:

1. Reprice low-margin products.
2. Remove unprofitable advertising campaigns.
3. Create bundles that increase average order value.
4. Improve subscription retention.
5. Negotiate supplier or fulfilment terms.
6. Reconcile marketplace fees and refunds accurately.
7. Shift effort towards your highest-contribution customer segment.

Manage the risks before scaling domestic sales

Domestic growth still requires control. More sales can create higher VAT liabilities, stock commitments and customer-service costs.

Set a quarterly trigger such as:

• Contribution margin must stay above 35%.
• Customer acquisition payback must remain below six months.
• Closing cash must cover at least eight weeks of fixed costs.
• Returns must remain below a defined percentage.
• No single channel should represent more than 70% of revenue.

This play is right when operational improvement can create more cash than a new market would consume.

Growth Play Two: Enter one carefully selected international market

International expansion can unlock significant demand. It can also create registrations, customs responsibilities, local tax filings and new working-capital requirements.

Do not ask, “Which country is largest?” Ask, “Which market can we serve profitably and compliantly with our current resources?”

Score the market before entering

Assess each potential market against:

• Existing customer demand
• Average selling price
• Delivery time and shipping cost
• Return logistics
• Product restrictions
• Language and customer-support needs
• Competition
• Currency exposure
• Import duties and customs
• VAT, GST or Sales Tax obligations
• Availability of reliable local fulfilment

Start with one country, one channel and a limited product range. This makes the result measurable and reduces the cost of a failed test.

Assign customs and tax responsibilities clearly

If you sell physical goods, decide who is responsible for:

• Importer of record status
• Customs declarations
• Commodity codes
• Customs value and origin
• Import duties
• Import VAT
• Product documentation
• Returns and re-imports

The importer of record may remain responsible even when a freight forwarder submits the declaration. Review HMRC’s import guidance and document the arrangement before shipping.

For EU consumer sales, consider whether the EU One Stop Shop or Import One Stop Shop is relevant. OSS can simplify eligible EU VAT reporting, while IOSS applies to qualifying low-value imported goods. These schemes do not remove the need for accurate transaction data, correct VAT rates and supporting records.

For US sales, monitor each state separately. Sales Tax nexus may arise through economic activity, inventory, employees, affiliates or other connections. Thresholds and filing rules differ by state and can change. Review the relevant state tax department before crossing a registration trigger.

If you use a foreign-owned US LLC or other US entity, check federal reporting separately. A foreign-owned US disregarded entity may need to file IRS Form 5472, attached to a pro forma Form 1120, when it has reportable transactions. This is an information-reporting obligation and should not be confused with ordinary income tax filing.

Choose this play when the economics remain positive after compliance

Build a market-entry model that includes:

• Product contribution margin
• International shipping
• Duties and import costs
• Local tax administration
• Returns
• Customer support