Noel Dyson

A HARDER enforcement line on GST payment by the Australian Tax Office is expected to create a second wave of business closures.

ONE of WA’s largest utilities has turned retailers and plumbers into a second sales force for its product.For the past six years AlintaGas has been using its AlintaGas-approved gas fitters and retailers to promote its main product – natural gas.

FIVE years after starting her business in the back shed of her home, designer Anna Chandler is operating from a factory in O’Connor and employing 20 staff.

BUSINESS groups and unions are being given the chance to apply for WA Government grants to help pay for work aimed at simplifying awards covering their industries.

LISTED winemaker Evans & Tate has made Australian Wine Holding’s job of selling its Bridgeland Vineyard property easier by reaching an in-principle agreement to lease the property.

In this week’s focus on customer service, Noel Dyson looks at how businesses find out if they’re doing it right.ONE of the most important challenges facing business owners is finding out what their customers think of the level of service offered.

THE GST has turned two but the impact of its introduction remains.Cash flow and compliance problems remain the two biggest problems facing businesses post the GST’s introduction.However, other GST issues appear to have settled down.

VIOLENCE breaking out on site and misuse of safety procedures are among the key concerns of the building industry for the coming year.

ONE credit management option facing businesses these days is to outsource the debtor book.Factoring houses, and some debt collection agencies, will accept the debtor book in return for about 1 per cent of the value of the invoices it contains.

COMPLAINING to the WA Government’s Building Industry and Special Projects Inspectorate is considered reasonable cause for industrial action.

PLANS for the Perth CBD’s eastern gateway will be announced to the public at 11am on July 7 at Queens Gardens. The public will then have three months to make comments on the plans.

CASH flow is the lifeblood of any successful business, so managing it and the credit book of the business is crucial.

AN unhappy customer can be a business’s best friend – if they are handled properly.Dissatisfied customers can highlight problems in a company’s customer service and can be turned into ambassadors for the business.

QUESTIONS are being raised about the effectiveness of the national taskforce mooted at the Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry.

MORE than 5,000 small retailers around Perth could soon be getting information on a new enterprise bargaining agreement to cover their industry.There are an estimated 6,500 small retailers in Perth.

CONSTRUCTION Forestry Mining and Energy Union secretary Kevin Reynolds claims he is looking forward to giving evidence before the royal commission into the building industry when it comes back to Perth.

The Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry has already offered some potential outcomes that could change the face of WA’s industrial relations landscape.

WA contractors could be taken to the cleaners to the tune of $38 million if a Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union push to stop the outsourcing of government school cleaning is successful at the Labor Party’s State

SALARY packaging appears to be a dying practice, despite its benefits to some high-wealth individuals.

WORKERS in the media beware – the Australian Tax Office is beefing up its compliance arm and will be focusing closely on work-related expenses.

SENIOR building industry figures are licking their lips at the prospect that CFMEU assistant secretary Joe McDonald will face serious criminal charges when the Cole commission winds up in December.

THE battle to develop a $200 million resort at Mauds Landing on the Ningaloo Reef could well be billed as a stoush between two of WA’s premier artists.

SALARY packaging appears to be a dying practice, despite its benefits to some high-wealth individuals.

WHILE businesses operating through wholly owned group structures have been given one year’s grace from the new tax consolidation regime, advisers are warning against complacency.

THE need to move its large engineering workshop from Fremantle to Henderson has sparked a new business for a WA company.

FRESH from an extended stay on the Hardman Resources and Bounty Oil & Gas Woodada 19 exploration well in the Woodada gas field, Century rig 24 has been on the move this week, to explore at least two more prospects in the Perth Basin.

EVEN with the accounting firepower of WA’s biggest listed company, dealing with the new tax consolidation regime is a fairly daunting exercise.

THE organisers of one of world hockey’s biggest tournaments have been forced to clear some unexpected legal hurdles in order to establish exclusive agreements.

CONTRACTORS on the old Prescribed Payments System will face further tax change from July 1.This class of contractor has been quarantined from the Australian Tax Office’s alienation of personal services income provisions for the past two years.

A VALUATIONS war is looming over the real cost of the break-up of Western Power with a wide range in suggested figures – from $5 million to $700 million.

TIMING is a vital factor in any business’s decision to buy a new vehicle fleet, saving thousands of dollars in some cases, and costing similar amounts in others.

COMPANIES operating through group structures have been given an extra year to come to terms with the Federal Government’s tax consolidation regime.