The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is encouraging small businesses to start 2026 strong to avoid compliance actions.

ATO Assistant Commissioner Angela Allen said the new calendar year is the perfect time for small businesses to reset their habits to set themselves up for success.

‘Every year we see small businesses run into avoidable issues because they haven’t kept accurate records, reported all their income or managed their cash flow effectively,’ Ms Allen said.

Seeking advice from a registered tax practitioner is one of the most effective ways to avoid common errors and navigate areas of complexity. 

‘Part of the $27.2 billion small business income tax gap is driven by mistakes, so it’s important to be aware of the ATO’s small business focus areas and if you’re unsure seek support early.’ 

‘Taking just a few small practical steps now can make a huge difference, whether it’s putting funds aside to cover GST and PAYG withholding, staying on top of ATO debts or setting calendar reminders for lodgment due dates.’ 

Stay on top of ATO debts

The ATO is urging small businesses to stay on top of their tax debts or risk firmer recovery actions as it accelerates efforts to collect more than $50 billion in unpaid tax. 

Small business tax debts continue to grow and the ATO is urging business owners to act now to avoid pressure down the track. 

‘It’s about setting your business up for success and if for some reason you can’t pay in full or on time, our number one tip is to not stick your head in the sand. Engage with us or your registered tax practitioner early to discuss your options,’ Ms Allen said. 

‘The ATO is not a bank or a cheap source of finance. Deliberately delaying tax payments to fund your business creates an unfair advantage over the many small businesses that are doing the right thing and paying on time.’

Separate accounts for separate obligations

Cash flow remains one of the biggest pressure points for small businesses, with owners scrambling at business activity statement (BAS) time because funds for GST or pay as you go (PAYG) withholding haven’t been set aside. 

‘Keeping separate bank accounts for these obligations makes it easier to meet your commitments and avoid unexpected shortfalls,’ Ms Allen said. 

‘Don’t be tempted to dip into GST you’ve collected, or PAYG withholding collected on behalf of your employees, as a way to bolster your cash flow.’

‘While using these amounts to fund your business may feel like a short-term fix, it creates much bigger problems down the track and makes it harder to recover when your obligations are due.’

Good records, good business 

The ATO continues to see instances where income is omitted from tax returns, particularly from businesses that accept cash payments or have inconsistent record keeping practices. 

‘Accurate, consistent and complete record keeping isn’t just a good idea – it’s a requirement,’ Ms Allen said. 

If you’re still using the ‘shoebox’ method to keep your records, it’s well and truly time to go digital. If you’re a sole trader the ATO app has a range of features like myDeductions, tax withheld calculator and the business performance check tool. 

Small businesses should also take advantage of the ATO’s online services, where they can check their lodgment status and keep tabs on outstanding debts. 

Prepare for Payday Super 

With Payday Super requiring businesses to pay employees their super guarantee each payday from 1 July 2026, the ATO is urging small businesses to plan ahead. 

‘Review your payroll systems and super processes and get ready to pay super guarantee more frequently,’ Ms Allen said.  

What’s on the ATO’s radar 

The ATO encourages small businesses and their tax practitioner to stay across the small business compliance focus areas, which are updated quarterly and published on the ATO’s website. 

‘It’s all about being transparent about the compliance risks on our radar so small businesses can continue to get it right in 2026. And, where we see deliberate non-compliance including shadow economy behaviours we will take firmer action.’ 

Seek support early

Successful small businesses have support from someone who understands their business, such as a registered tax practitioner.

‘If you need help keeping on top of your ATO obligations you may wish to engage a registered tax practitioner but ensure they are registered with the Tax Practitioners Board,’ Ms Allen said. 

‘Getting your tax advice from a friend on the weekend is not a good plan and neither is relying on social media for guidance.’ 

Closing up shop?

For business owners who have closed their business or are considering winding down in 2026, the ATO has detailed information on the next steps to take including cancelling ABNs, lodging final tax returns and BAS, and meeting payroll and super obligations for the last time.

‘If you decide it’s time to move on, closing your business the right way helps avoid future compliance issues,’ Ms Allen said.

Creative ideas don’t always arrive fully formed — often, they take shape through exploration, trial and error, and refinement. That’s why we designed Adobe Firefly as an all-in-one creative AI studio where creators can work with the industry’s leading AI models and powerful creative tools, all in one place, to move from idea to finished work.

Today, we’re giving you the freedom and flexibility to go deeper in your creative exploration with unlimited image and video generations. Firefly subscribers can now create unlimited generations with industry-leading image models, including Google Nano Banana Pro, GPT Image Generation, Runway Gen-4 Image, as well as Adobe’s commercially safe Firefly image and video models.

Unlimited generations for continuous creative exploration

It’s been exciting to see how generative AI has become an essential part of your creative toolkit. Eighty-six percent of creators use creative AI in their daily workflows. And you’re not just using it — you’re honing your craft. The average Firefly prompt length doubled in 2025 — showing how creators are engaging more conversationally with creative AI and proving that prompting itself is becoming a core creative skill.

With unlimited image and video generations, it’s easier to stay in your flow — so you can explore new ideas and creative directions as they emerge, play with different variations, styles, and approaches across models, and refine a concept as many times as it takes to get it right.

Unlimited generations are available on firefly.adobe.com, in Firefly Boards — Adobe’s collaborative, AI-powered ideation surface — and in the Firefly mobile app on iOS and Android, giving you different places to explore ideas and refine work as it takes shape.

Turn unlimited generations into meaningful creative output with Firefly’s best-in-class tools, bringing your creative vision to life across any medium.

• Develop and align ideas in Firefly Boards, where you and your team can bring inspiration, references, and generated assets into one shared space to iterate quickly, gather feedback, and move concepts forward together.
• Edit sequences with Firefly video editor, the browser-based assembly space for generative storytelling
• Continue to refine by adding sound effects or fully-licensed music tracks
• Edit your images with Prompt to Edit — simply describe your changes in plain language, such as adding or removing objects, swapping backgrounds, or refining details instantly

From idea to finished creation — without breaking your flow

What makes Adobe Firefly different isn’t just unlimited generations — it’s also what you can do with your creations after you generate them.

Firefly connects your creative exploration directly to Adobe’s professional-grade tools, so you can move from ideas to finished work without starting over. Generate in Firefly, refine with precise controls, and finish with even more power and precision in Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop and Premiere to refine the result and make it truly production ready.

What to create right now

To spark ideas for how to make the most of unlimited creation with Firefly, here are a few fun ways you can bring seasonal moments to life:

Create Valentine editorials with Firefly Boards

Check out our Valentine’s Day–themed Firefly Boards presets that make it easy to jump into styles and trends. Just go to the “Presets” tab and choose the Valentine’s Day preset (Sweet Treats or Tarot & Lipstick), add images and hit “Generate.” You’ll see your variations and can start refining your ideas directly on the board. Here’s a tutorial to get you started.

Make throwback Valentine’s cards (elementary-school style!): Remember handing out cards to everyone in class? Using Google’s Nano Banana Pro model in Adobe Firefly, recreate that charm by designing playful, nostalgic Valentine’s cards for friends and family — then refine colors, fonts, and illustrations until they feel perfectly personal. Click here to try it now.

Turn you and your bestie into claymation characters: Celebrate Valentine’s by transforming photos of you and your pal into adorable claymation-style characters—complete with hearts, candy, or cozy Valentine’s vibes. Experiment with different looks until you land on a style that feels just right. Upload a reference image and try it now.

Create a romance movie poster or book cover: Turn your friendship or love story into a full-blown, rom-com moment. Generate multiple poster concepts, tweak the mood and typography, and refine the details until it looks like it belongs on a marquee. Upload a reference image of you and your friend or crush and try it now.

Transform your photo into a Lunar New Year paper-cut design: Using Google’s Nano Banana Pro model, reinterpret photos or ideas as contemporary paper-cut graphics — exploring symmetry, symbolic motifs, and bold, high-contrast shapes. Upload a reference image and try it now.

Square has announces its partnership with Prefecture 48, a multi-venue Japanese dining destination redefining premium hospitality in Sydney’s CBD. Built around precision and craft, Prefecture 48 partnered with Square to reduce operational friction and give teams more time to focus on what matters most: the guest experience.

Prefecture 48 brings together six distinct venues under one roof, from contemporary kaiseki at Garaku and chef-led dining at Five, to the sushi experience at Omakase, robata-focused Ibushi, the Whisky Thief bar and patisserie Dear Florence. Each venue operates with its own service style and pace while contributing to a single, immersive journey. Delivering that journey at scale requires technology that can handle complexity quietly in the background, without demanding attention from staff during service.

“We’ve always envisioned ourselves to be a one-stop for multiple destinations,” says Prefecture 48 Brand Director Cindy Tseng. “Square is a perfect integration into this concept because it allows our guests to move freely between venues with only one bill at the end of the night. To us, that is a big win.”

“Prefecture 48 represents the kind of sophisticated, full-service hospitality Square is built to support,” said Colin Birney, Head of Business Development at Square. “Running an operation of this calibre demands technology that can handle complexity without getting in the way. Square is designed to give teams time back to focus on craft, service and the guest experience.”

At Prefecture 48, the ability to handle complexity without disruption is delivered through Square for Restaurants, combined with Square Register, Square Terminal and Square Handheld, which connect the entire precinct through a single system. Orders, payments and menus flow through one platform, supporting everything from tasting menus and omakase service to bar tabs and dessert-only visits. By simplifying complex operations, Square frees teams to stay present on the floor and in the kitchen.

“I can detail that particular item description within literally 60 seconds,” says Prefecture 48 IT Manager Phil Chan. “That flexibility is critical for a venue like ours, where menus change frequently and accuracy during service matters.”

For front-of-house teams, that reclaimed time translates directly into better hospitality. “Square allows our front-of-house team to spend a lot more time with our guests instead of fussing over behind the scenes,” says Tseng.

In the kitchen, clarity and precision are essential. Head Chef Hiroshi Manaka highlights the importance of clean docketing and clear notes to support multi-course menus and dietary requirements, enabling his team to focus on craft, consistency and timing during service.

Beyond service, Square’s real-time insights give Prefecture 48 visibility across all venues, helping the group make informed decisions while protecting the creative and cultural vision behind the precinct.

The partnership reflects Square’s continued evolution as a hospitality platform built for complexity, not compromise. From neighbourhood venues to some of the most ambitious dining destinations in the country, Square is designed to give operators time back to focus on what matters most.

Three-quarters of Australian small businesses expect stronger results in 2026, according to new data from Shopify. The survey of 500+ local business owners and senior decision-makers explored the business outlook, priorities and technology adoption of Australian small business retailers, with key findings including:

• Business outlook:
  • 31% of Australian SMBs are much more optimistic about their performance in 2026 and another 44% are somewhat more optimistic, while only 4% expressed negative sentiment about the year ahead.
  • The top two priorities of SMBs in 2026: Revenue growth (32%), improving profitability and cash flow (31%), followed by retaining and growing existing customers (28%), and improving customer experience and support (25%).
• Where retailers are investing:
  • Strengthening security, privacy, and data protection (36%) and supporting international selling capabilities (32%) are top of mind for SMBs when it comes to the tools to prioritise, alongside using AI and automation for efficiency and content creation (31%).
    • Many also emphasise connecting in-store and online systems (28%) and improving site/app speed and uptime (27%). 
  • When it comes to emerging technologies, Australian SMBs are prioritising customer-facing tools and sales-driving capabilities: One-click checkout (36%) and retail media networks (35%) are seen as essential to compete, alongside creator commerce (32%) and next-day delivery promise (31%). 
• AI and tech adoption: 
  • Two-in-five local SMBs are in the early majority when it comes to adopting new tech, with many adopting technology once its value is proven. 
  • However, a significant portion (33%) are early adopters, testing and implementing tools ahead of peers. Only a small minority wait until solutions are mainstream (19%) or adopt only when necessary (6%).
  • When it comes to AI, 78% of Australian SMBs report using ChatGPT or another generative AI tool in the past 12 months, while 20% have not used AI, and 2% are unsure. 
  • The most common AI use cases include creating marketing content (37%), generating product content (34%), and analysing data or generating reports (33%). 
• Community impact:).
  • Nearly three-quarters of SMBs expect to increase their community involvement over the next year, with 33% planning a significant increase and 41% anticipating a moderate rise. 
  • The key ways SMBs support their local communities:
    • Offering affordable access to goods or services (39%) 
    • Providing local jobs (36%)
    • Purchasing from local suppliers (31%) 
    • Providing training and mentorship for local workers and entrepreneurs (29%) – the highest rate among the markets surveyed (US 18%; Canada 22%; UK 16%; Germany 22%)

Methodology: The survey was conducted from November 18th to 29th, 2025 among 513 Australian business owners and senior decision-makers. Businesses included in the study are ones that focus on selling products, and have at least part of their sales conducted online.