In the recent case of Tech Mahindra Limited v FCT, the Federal Court held that an Indian resident company which carried out IT services for Australian clients both from its Australian permanent establishment (PE) employees and by its Indian employees was liable to tax in Australia in respect of part of the income derived from the services provided from India. …
The secret cost of the $9 labour hour
Just recently we had a conversation with an Australian accountant. They’d been using a provider overseas with poor results. By way of background, this Australian accounting firm is one of the what we would term newer firms, i.e. without legacy systems and legacy employee issues. This is a Xero only firm, with a homogeneous and process driven approach, where there …
2025 and the Future of Compliance
2025 is just around the corner, and for pretty much all of us in Australia we’ll be somehow engaged in work or play. Most of the present factors that we see in our daily news will continue to affect work, life and play. Australia will have an increasing need for infrastructure to remain competitive, there will be an ageing population …
Economy in Transition – Startups, innovation and a workforce for the future
The paper, Economy in Transition – Startups, innovation and a workforce for the future, was recently released by StartupAUS, the national start-up advocacy group. The discussion paper warns up to 4.6 million jobs may be at risk if Australia does not prepare its workforce for the digital future. The paper was produced with global networking firm LinkedIn and Sydney startups Expert360 and CodeCamp, and suggests few jobs …
CSIRO modelling and the impacts of offshoring and automation on Australian accountants
Last week we mentioned the CSIRO released a report on “Tomorrows digitally enabled workforce”. At 112 pages it’s certainly a detailed document, but it’s worth also looking at the Appendix on modelling. In “Modelling occupation changes in Australia”, the CSIRO identified 4 different work activities: Knowledge, Influencing people, Machines and Movement, Personal Services. In the first model, skills are noted …
Tomorrow’s Digitally Enabled Workforce
Earlier this year the CSIRO released a report on “Tomorrow’s Digitally Enabled Workforce”. Whilst this report is quite a read at 122 pages, this contains significant nuggets of information that give important offerings for accountants, and accounting firm owners. The move to the knowledge economy, offshoring and automation, and the new entrepreneurial freelancer models. As to why this report has …
Relax, a robot might not take 98% of your compliance work
There have been plenty of reports recently about jobs areas “at risk” due to computerization, commoditization and offshoring. A 2013 report on “the future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerization” talks about factors impacting work in the future including the surge in computing power, streamlining of tasks and offshoring. Certainly these issues are still relevant today. This report …
KPCB’s 2016 Internet trends report. Voice and other trends affecting accounting compliance
KPCB’s Mary Meeker has become a legend for publishing the annual compilation of the most critical statistics and trends in technology. The 2016 Internet trends report was released last month with the slides available here. It’s well worth spending some time going through and having a look at some amazing trends, and new businesses that have sprung up virtually overnight …
The Australian accounting world just got smaller… LinkedIn “Freelancer for hire” service
You might have noticed in the news just recently that Microsoft and LinkedIn announced they have entered into an agreement under which Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn for an all cash transaction of $26.2 Billion. Whilst some people are scratching their heads at the amount paid, some others are explaining the underlying reasons, including quite possibly the largest database of connected professionals on …
Capacity planning… We don’t need no capacity planning
Or perhaps it was badges we didn’t need… With a nod to the 1927 novel “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, we head off to discuss the hotly contested issue of capacity planning. Wikipedia notes Capacity planning as the process of determining the production capacity needed by an organization to meet changing demands for its products. Capacity planning is normally raised …