On the 12^th of March LBW closed the office for the afternoon and headed off to the Old Geelong Goal to volunteer our time. The Rotary Club of Geelong leases the Gaol from the City of Greater Geelong. The Rotary Club members volunteer their time to open the gaol up to visitors and this provides the club with funding for their work in the local community. As a team LBW was very keen to get involved in this community project.

 

Our day started with lunch within the goal walls, then the LBW staff mowed, trimmed, weeded, swept, mopped, cleaned and washed parts of the gaol including the cells, shower block, kitchen, guard tower, medical room, loss of privilege yard and the exercise yard. We were taken on a tour of the St. Laurence Art Unlimited facility that has a tenancy on the goal site and had a chance to meet the clients there and see the great work that they do. We jumped in and did some gardening and mowing within the Art Unlimited area to help them.

 

At the end one of the Rotary members was kind enough to take any interested staff on a tour of the gaol and talk about the history of the site. We finished off with a BBQ and a few drinks in the exercise yard. We all felt that we had done a great thing and made positive contributions to a very good cause. Hopefully next year we can do something similar to help the community that we live in. Below are some photos of staff working very hard!

With 31 March just around the corner, another FBT year nears its end. For this reason, we will shortly be mailing forms to you to fill in, sign and return to us in order to provide the information we require in determining your FBT obligations. We wish to use this opportunity to both remind you of this approaching milestone and request that you all take a look at the odometer readings on all vehicles held in your business entities right now so you will have this information handy to fill out the forms when you receive them. Note that we will require odometer readings even in cases where the vehicles have high or 100% business usage.

 

We request that you have the forms filled out and returned to us in a timely manner as it is often difficult to remember the details several months later when we are preparing your accounts and find we have not received them. Note that there is particular urgency for businesses that require FBT returns as these are due on 21 May 2010, less than two months after the end of the FBT year.

We wish to remind those clients who have not yet provided us with their 2009 tax information, that lodgement dates will come around very soon. The final lodgement date for the 2009 year is 17 May 2010. Penalties apply after that date is up to $550 per taxpayer, if returns are lodged late. Therefore, we suggest that you start getting your 2009 tax information ready for us asap.

 

BAS’s are also due at the end of April 2010 for the January – March 2010 quarter.