Small business (company) – Owner of Hilltop Café

Vivian Voight

‘Because many of my tax and super interactions are automated, I have more time to grow my business.’

I’m excited to start my dream business, opening a café in the perfect location! I’m very creative but not good with numbers.

I really want to focus on running the business and leave my partner Sara to take care of the financial side of things.

While looking to set up my café, I could go to a single place to find out about starting and running a business. I even found out about a small business mentoring service in my local community.

Registering my business as a company, and organising licencing and insurances was easier than I thought. All the information and relevant links I needed were conveniently located in a single place. I was even notified of my requirements as a soon to be employer.

I linked my business to my individual profile and set up my service preferences for the Small Business Newsroom. Through my profile, I also authorised Sara to act as my bookkeeper. This meant I could focus on setting up the café, while Sara received information about tax and super obligations.

We really wanted to make sure that the café was set up the right way from the beginning, including what we needed to do for GST. We’d received some specific advice from our accountant about tax and cafés, but there were a few extra things we had thought of since our appointment that we wanted to confirm that night. Sara used the ATO web chat function to ask some questions we still had, including about GST and super.

The person Sara chatted to was really helpful, gave us some easy to follow advice and afterwards there was a record of the conversation sitting in our profile inbox so that we could refer to it later.

A couple of days later someone from the ATO contacted me to make sure that we had everything we needed to get the café up and running, and they checked that we understood our tax and super obligations.

Next step was finding staff. When I’d found the right people, Sara logged into our business profile and added them as employees. Through our systems, we were provided with their relevant tax information and super preferences. She said it was quick and easy and no paperwork.

Similarly, when we started paying wages, the withheld tax and super were automatically reported to the nominated super funds and the ATO, meeting all our reporting obligations; it’s great we don’t have to do that every quarter.

Sara and I are confident that we are off to a good start. Our licencing, tax and super obligations are being met and we know we can get help again at any time when we need it.

What the ATO does

• We work across government to help Vivian set up her business and get things right.
• There is a coordinated government communication approach, based on whole-of-government priorities, which ensures Vivian gets the messages she needs.
• We use predictive analytics to ensure Vivian is getting the information and support she needs when she needs it, including about deductions and entitlements.
• We provide Vivian with the ability to link profiles and authorise Sara to access her business profile.
• We have the capability and capacity to help Vivian and Sara when they need it. Using web chat we are able to answer questions that are relevant to their needs.
• We understand information may be coming from different digital solutions or business software.
• Through the data we receive, we understand Vivian’s whole-of-government position and are able to help her meet her government obligations.

How the ATO behaves

• We understand and consider our clients' circumstances and offer prompt services tailored to their circumstances.
• We are supported to take ownership, exercise judgment and make timely decisions.
• We provide the right answer, at the right time and in the right way.