Welcome

 

Welcome to FY22

It was a busy end to the Financial Year for us at Elevate Legal as we are sure it was for many of our clients.

Through the business however, some of the team have been able to take a bit of time off. With borders and lockdowns still causing havoc, Andrew’s planned trip to NSW became a ‘staycation’ in Melbourne. Though not the holiday hoped for, he was still able to take some day trips and spend time with his family during the school holidays. Jackie has also taken a week off to spend some time with her kids over their holiday break in Perth, and Roxie was able to spend a bit of time at her parent’s place in the country. Yee is planning to take some time off when the weather is a bit warmer!

We continue to work from both home and the office with our Alliance Service progressing well. We have now also moved to 100% fixed pricing (and thrown off the timesheet shackles!) As always if you are interested in our Alliance Service or need assistance with any other commercial legal work, please reach out.

We mentioned in our last newsletter that our hope was Jackie had been able to visit Melbourne before this newsletter came out. Unfortunately we haven’t quite managed this due to State borders being shut down unpredictably – but we have committed to have her visit for Elevate Legal’s 5th birthday in October (if not before).

Best Wishes

Andrew, Jackie, Roxie & Yee

 

Client spotlight

 

Each newsletter we profile one of our clients doing amazing things.

In this edition, we’re proud to feature Castlepoint Systems.

Castlepoint founders, Rachael and Gavin, developed Castlepoint to fix a problem, namely that traditional methods of controlling information have not worked well in practice. By using Artificial Intelligence, Castlepoint Systems allows organisations to have a complete view across their entire environment, and to apply security, discovery and compliance processes to every system from a single interface.

Castlepoint is a single solution to manage all of the information in an organisation. It registers every record in every business system and uses Artificial Intelligence to classify it against rules and regulations, and apply appropriate lifecycle controls. It acts to find, relate, manage and audit every record in an organisation’s network, no matter what system it is stored in.

Elevate Legal recently assisted the team in completing a successful $3m Series A funding round led by well known venture capital fund Main Sequence, and we look forward to continuing to work with the team as one of our Alliance Service members.

https://www.castlepoint.systems/

 

What else is keeping us busy

 

Here’s some other projects we’ve worked on with our clients over the last few months.

  • Helping many clients with capital raising – term sheets, SAFE notes and issues of ordinary and preference shares to VC investors
  • Advising several clients on potential purchases and sales of businesses
  • Software / SaaS contract terms
  • Lots of reseller and distribution agreements, teaming agreements
  • Heads of Agreement / MoUs for development agreements and joint ventures
  • Intellectual property licences, assignments and other transactions – including spin-outs from Universities into new companies
  • Preparing, reviewing and advising on lots of commercial contracts and NDAs
  • Preparing documentation and setting up ESOPs.

If you’re looking for similar solutions please get in touch.

Legal briefing

 

Changes to Employee Equity Rules

As part of the Budget released in May 2021, the Federal Government announced that it planned to amend the tax rules for ‘tax deferred’ employee share schemes. This will mean that if an employee leaves the company, it won’t automatically trigger a tax payment. Current rules can require staff to pay tax when they leave their employment, even if they cannot sell the shares or cash out their options in order to pay the tax. It is important to note that these changes will only apply to companies who use a ‘tax deferred’ scheme (not the start-up tax concessions) and will only apply to equity issued after 1 July 2021.

Currently, under a tax deferred employees share scheme where certain criteria are met, employees may defer tax until a later tax year (the deferred taxing point). The deferred taxing point is the earliest of:

(a) cessation of employment;

(b) in the case of shares – when there is no risk of forfeiture and no restrictions on disposal;

(c) in the case of options – when the employee exercises the option and there is no risk of forfeiting the resulting share and no restriction on disposal; or

(d) 15 years.

The change proposed by the Government is to remove ‘cessation of employment’ as a taxing point, meaning tax will be deferred until the earliest of the remaining taxing points.

The Government also plans to increase the value of equity that can be issued to employees with streamlined disclosure requirements, from $5,000 to $30,000 per year. This will apply to unlisted companies who do not charge or lend to the employees to whom they offer equity.

At this time these changes have not been enacted in legislation, however we will continue to monitor this and will include an update when the changes are made.

 

Updates to the Fair Work Act for casual staff

The Fair Work Act 2009 is the main Commonwealth law dealing with workplace rights across Australia. Changes to this Act amended the workplace rights and obligations for casual employees, with effect from 27 March 2021. The amendments included three major changes for casual employees.

First, Employers must give every new casual employee a Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS) before or as soon as possible after, they begin the job. Small business owners (less than 15 staff) must give their existing casual employees a CEIS as soon as possible after 27 March 2021 (i.e., do it now!) and all other employers must give their existing casual employees a CEIS as soon as possible after 27 September 2021. You can download the CEIS here.

Second, the definition of a casual employee has been updated. Now, a person is a casual employee if they accept a job offer from an employer knowing that there is no firm advance commitment to ongoing work with an agreed pattern of work. They continue on a casual basis until they move to permanent employment or leave.

Finally, a new entitlement has been added to the National Employment Standards giving casual employees a pathway to becoming a permanent employee (casual conversion). An employer must offer a casual conversion when an employee has worked for 12 months and in a regular pattern of hours for at least the last 6 of those months; and could continue working those hours as a permanent employee without significant changes. Some exceptions apply, including if an employer has ‘reasonable grounds’ not to offer casual conversion. Small businesses (under 15 staff) don’t have to offer casual conversion, but casual staff can still ask for it where they meet the requirements.

 

Virtual AGMs and electronic signing update

In our last newsletter we covered the fact that the Federal Government had planned to extend legislation introduced due to the Covid-19 Pandemic to allow for virtual AGMs and using technology to execute company documents. Draft legislation has now been released which will make permanent the temporary measures that expired on 21 March 2021. If the Bill is passed, documents will be able to be signed electronically and companies will be able to hold physical and hybrid meetings. Wholly virtual meetings can be used if required or permitted by the company’s constitution.

We will keep you posted if/when the law comes into effect.

 

Diversions

 

A selection of things taking up time outside work:

  • Three Hours, Rosamund Lupton – A book spanning only 180 minutes but one that hooks you in with the story of a school in Somerset being held hostage by a gunman (Roxie)

  • Another Round – a fun Danish movie in which four middle aged high school teachers test a theory that we are at our most productive and socially successful if we’re always a little bit intoxicated. Highly recommended for a diversion! (Andrew)

  • Luca – a beautiful Pixar movie that is funny, heart-warming and charming for the whole family. It addresses deeper topics such as friendship, acceptance and family. (Yee)

  • Spending time with the family during school holidays – including the lovely Snowy (below)! (Jackie)