Banking Labor Law References

The economic prosperity of the Middle East countries is primarily fueled up by oil reserves. The countries are developing at a faster rate and hence luring population from various parts of the world. Previously the job opportunities was limited to the oil sector but now myriads of job opportunities await candidates both from the Middle East countries as well as beyond the boundaries. Among all the Countries, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are growing at a faster pace. The local challenges have contributed more to the growth of the Middle East countries.

Middle East, once a popular destination of travellers, has outshined many of its competitors in the developmental aspect. According to several estimates, there are about 50,000 US citizens work in Middle East and most of them are settled in Saudi Arabia. Other parts of the Middle East especially Dubai has also experienced a massive development in travel, education, trade, construction and other businesses. Construction jobs seem to have created a separate niche in the Middle East as multi-storied buildings, bridges, offices and residential are under construction.

The benefits offered to the employees in Middle East:

The employees, according to the labour laws of various Middle East countries, enjoy some of the common benefits like:

They are not charged any taxes or the taxation system is very flexible. Due to the above mentioned reason and because of the huge project values they are hired against high salary. Many of the workers in Middle East are entitled to a fixed paid housing allowance. Those who are dedicated to religious and holy sites can enjoy proximity to Mecca and Madinah. A large number of Muslims employees enjoy working as they can easily find population of their cultural communities. The Middle East countries recruits expatriates for a period of 2 years or so.
Job requirements in Middle East

There are a large number of companies that have opened their branches in Middle East. Apart from these, small companies are also recruiting people in Middle East. Dubai city offers a wide range of job opportunities for skilled people from wide across the globe. To work in Middle East, an employer certificate and Visa is required. Since the official language is Arabic, people conversant in these languages always have added advantage. Moreover, those knowing Urdu, Hindi and Tagalog can also feel comfortable. English is however, the business language of UAE.

Business Activity Statements (BAS) are used by business’s to report and pay a number of tax obligations, including GST, Pay As You Go (PAYG) instalments, PAYG withholding and Fringe Benefits Tax. This is the ATO’s way of combining a range of taxes into one statement to make it easier for you to collect and report information and monies that are due to the ATO, making sure that none are forgotten.

The ATO will generally issue your activity statement around 2 weeks before the end of your reporting period. It will need to be completed and lodged by the due date which is set by the ATO, and any amounts owing will also need to be paid. It is important to keep a copy of your activity statement and the records used in the preparation of it for five years in case the ATO have any enquiries or choose to carry out an audit on your business and its books.

You activity statement is personalised to your situation and if your business has previously lodged a Business Activity Statement subsequent statements will include any options that you have previously included. Generally it will show the items that you need to report against, which could include:
o Goods and Services Tax (GST)
o PAYG Instalments
o PAYG Withholding
o Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT)
o Luxury Car Tax (LCT), and
o Fuel tax credits.

There are a number of ways that you can lodge your BAS. It can be lodged online, through your accountant, via mail or over the phone. If your BAS is not lodged on time you may be subject to a failure to lodge penalty (FTL). If you are late in lodging your BAS, for every 28 day period (or part of) that you failed to lodge you can be charged $110; however, you can not incur charges that exceed $550. NB: the penalty is x2 if your business turns over more than $1 million but less than $20 million, and x5 if you turnover more than $20 million.

If the BAS you submit contains information that is not correct, the least you will be charged – in the case of a genuine mistake, is general interest on the underpaid tax or extra credit received. If however, the mistake was attributable to carelessness or purposefully ignoring the law, you will be charged a penalty based on a percentage of the shortfall amount in question – the exact percentage charged will be dependent on the reason for the incorrect amount.

Important Dates:
You can lodge your BAS either monthly, quarterly, or annually. The following is important dates you need to know in relation to the lodgement and payment of your BAS:

o Monthly: The 21st of every month for the period just gone.
o Quarterly: The 28th of the following months – October, February, April, and July. (In the case of a lodgement/payment being due on a weekend or public holiday, it is due by the next business day.)
o Annually: (pertaining to GST Return): Is sent out after the fourth quarter BAS, and needs to be lodged by either the 28 February, or before your yearly income tax return is due, whatever comes first.

Refunds:
The usual outcome of a BAS being processed is either a refund (from the ATO), or you will owe them money (in relation to your tax collections). When it comes to your refund, sometimes the ATO will keep some or all of it. Their basis for this can include:

o You have a previous outstanding tax debt owing to the ATO,
o Information provided in your BAS needs clarifying,
o You failed to nominate a bank for the payment to go to, or the information you gave the ATO regarding that account was incorrect,
o You forgot to lodge one of your BAS, etc.

In order to avoid late or incorrect lodgment and to ensure that you are getting the maximum tax that is legally due to you it is recommended that you have an accountant or tax agent prepare and submit your Business Activity Statements. This also gives you more time to worry about the day-to-day running and growth of your business.

Should you have any queries, require assistance with your Business Activity Statement or would like more information please contact The Quinn Group on 1300 QUINNS or click here to submit an online enquiry.

It would be a very interesting position to be on the Bank of England’s Monetary policy committee (MPC) at the moment. Driven by the monetarist policies of both New Labour and the Conservatives, the rule always seems to have been control inflation by raising interest rates. This basic concept seems to have been lost during these Credit Crunch times. In fact since, the Credit Crunch began we have seen interest rates drop from 5.75% down to 5%. They have stayed at 5% for quite a while now though as the MPC are getting more and more jittery about inflation. The panel seem to be adopting a “wait and see” approach. The question that we need to ask ourselves is what is “less bad” inflation or recession?

By cutting interest rates inflation is likely to rise a little, as all the people on trackers and Bank SVR find a little extra money in their pockets from month to month. If interest rates are raised in a measure to control inflation, we could potentially see more companies go out of business as loans become more expensive.

In my opinion, it would be better to see rates drop, as inflation is potentially avoidable, but recession is a much more difficult matter. Let’s look at the situation of a typical factory worker. If inflation was to continue at its current level, or even go higher, the factory worker will struggle. They may have to change the way they shop, sell their car and switch to public transport. They may have to start taking a sandwich to work rather than eat at the canteen. They may have to quit smoking or do without their football season ticket this year. Two weeks in Majorca may have to be substituted for a weekend in Mablethorpe. Whatever happens though, the factory worker will be able to adapt.

On the other hand, if interest rates are increased, the factory worker may be called into the office to be laid off. No redundancy payout, just a couple of weeks notice. The factory worker goes to the Job Centre the very next day but unfortunately it seems that the same story has been played out at all the other factories. There are now fewer jobs on offer, and twice as many people fighting for the scraps. The Recruitment agencies aren’t fairing any better as the vast majority have long relied on factories and warehouses as there main customers (N.B. I expect to see 50% of recruitment agencies finish within the next 24 months). The factory worker faces up the fact that he now has to sign on for the short term. All luxuries will have to be foregone. He needs to write to all his creditors and let them know of inability to pay. Some may offer terms, others will start CCJ proceedings. Note that at the moment, Northern Rock are beginning repossession proceedings after one missed mortgage payment!

What situation would you rather be in? Having to cut your cloth to suit a harsher financial climate, or packing your belongings up to go into emergency housing? The MPC should think along these lines are cut Interest rates NOW.

By: ReginPaul

From real estate to personal finance, all these transactions that involve financial matters can be classified as investment. Investment entails the release or discharge of certain amounts of money from the part of the investor, in exchange of a much larger deal in the end (either monetary or not).

Investing in a bank is also possible, though the return is not really that big, at least you’ll have returns even though you are not doing anything. If you deposit your money in the bank, chances are, interest can make your money grow. The only two disadvantages I see in this setup are:

1. Interest rates are so low.
2. You need to have a lot of money deposited in your account for the returned investment to be big.

Word of mouth advertising is very effective in industries like hotel and lodging, spas, banking, law firms, outdoor landscaping and other professional services and a recommendation from a satisfied customer can promote a brand message more effectively than most other forms of advertising. This is particularly true during outdoor activities and events during the steamy hot days of summer.

Word of mouth acts as a testimonial to customer satisfaction and the endorsement of a satisfied customer can be repeated over and over again. Of course the reverse can be true. Low quality water, bottles and labels will create a negative image and can dramatically reduce the power of a brand. This is especially true if the water tastes bad or contains harmful contaminants.

Like with any other form of advertising, repetition is an important and necessary element in order to achieve a return on advertising dollars. One problem with word of mouth advertising is that customers, no mater how great the experience, tend to forget as time passes and reminders about the value they received become very important.

Repetition can be very expensive for most forms of advertising but one exception is private label bottled water with a quality message. The fact is that the cost of each bottle is low and the message tends to be longer lasting.

Now that summer is approaching, more and more people will participate in outdoor events and the effectiveness of private label bottled water becomes even more popular in the steamy days of summer.

Imagine outdoor events such as picnics (corporate and personal) concerts, rodeos, track meets and soccer games and a host of other gatherings that bring people together. Rather than soft drinks and alcohol based drinks, purified water with quality private labels attached will be popular and a great source of word of mouth advertising and brand enhancement.

Another use of private label bottled water is in the area of outdoor projects like landscaping and home improvement companies. These activities tend to lend themselves to word of mouth advertising, and the manual labor of both workers and supervisors guarantee that private label bottled water will be noticeable.

Another aspect of branded water is that some suppliers use purified water and that is critically important now that municipal tap water has been found to contain pharmaceutical drugs, salmonella and other harmful contaminants including chlorine.

Purified water is 100% pure and free from contaminants found in tap water and most other bottled waters.

Purified Bottled Water is one of the fastest growing beverages today. Carbonated soft drinks are losing market share to more healthy alternative like purified water. Bottled water has surpassed soft drinks in overall consumption. Benefit from this growing demand and add an advertising message.

Purified Bottled water is the healthiest water you can buy and if it is oxygenated, it tastes delicious.

It makes good business sense to include private label bottled water advertising campaign if you want to promote a strong brand image and message. Try it and you will be happy with the results.