section 761G be retail clients in relation to less than 20 employees, or, insurance and if the business is a ‘other’ financial products or services manufacturing business, the for the purpose of Chapter 7 business employs less than of the Act, which deals with 100 employees the regulation of financial services and markets Australian Small Business The Act provides for an That the business employs and Family Enterprise Ombudsman with advocacy less than 100 employees or Ombudsman Act 2015, and assistance function in the business has less than section 5 relation to small and family $5 million in revenue in a businesses year Fair Work Act 2009, section Alters the unfair dismissal That the business 23 provisions of the Act employees less than 15 employees Income Tax Assessment Act Provides access to certain That the business has an 1997, section 328110 concessional treatments in annual turnover of less than the tax laws $10 million Figure 1 shows that one common legislative approach used in Commonwealth legislation is to define businesses that employ less than a certain number of employees as small businesses. However, this definition is not consistent across all purposes for which small businesses are defined in legislation. There are almost no legislative references in Commonwealth legislation to which indicates that the Parliament has not ‘medium-sized businesses,’ granted differential treatment or special protections to medium-sized businesses. The only reference identified is in the Fair Work Act 2009, and is an acknowledgement in the Objects of the Act of the ‘special circumstances of small and mediumsized businesses.’ For statistical purposes, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines an entity employing less than 20 employees as an SME, and a medium-sized business as a business employing between 20 and 199 employees. Characteristics of SMEs Some limited data on the size and composition of the SME sector in Australia is available. Additionally, there is some data that shows the economic contribution of SMEs to the Australian economy.
section 761G be retail clients in relation to insurance and ‘other’ financial products or services for the purpose of Chapter 7 of the Act, which deals with the regulation of financial services and markets less than 20 employees, or, if the business is a manufacturing business, the business employs less than 100 employees Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Act 2015, section 5 The Act provides for an Ombudsman with advocacy and assistance function in relation to small and family businesses That the business employs less than 100 employees or the business has less than $5 million in revenue in a year Fair Work Act 2009, section 23 Alters the unfair dismissal provisions of the Act That the business employees less than 15 employees Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, section 328110 Provides access to certain concessional treatments in the tax laws That the business has an annual turnover of less than $10 million Figure 1 shows that one common legislative approach used in Commonwealth legislation is to define businesses that employ less than a certain number of employees as small businesses. However, this definition is not consistent across all purposes for which small businesses are defined in legislation. There are almost no legislative references in Commonwealth legislation to ‘medium-sized businesses,’ which indicates that the Parliament has not granted differential treatment or special protections to medium-sized businesses. The only reference identified is in the Fair Work Act 2009, and is an acknowledgement in the Objects of the Act of the ‘special circumstances of small and mediumsized businesses.’ For statistical purposes, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines an entity employing less than 20 employees as an SME, and a medium-sized business as a business employing between 20 and 199 employees. Characteristics of SMEs Some limited data on the size and composition of the SME sector in Australia is available. Additionally, there is some data that shows the economic contribution of SMEs to the Australian economy.
financial-services-and-small-and-medium-sized-enterprises-paper-12.docx