Nine things that changed for business owners this year, and which ones move your price
Payday super, a permanent write-off, a 4.75 per cent wage decision, a rate rise and a non-compete ban. A plain list of what actually landed in 2026, and which items a buyer prices.
General information only, not financial, legal or taxation advice. Tony Pope holds Queensland Office of Fair Trading licence 4963575.
The short version
- Most of what changed this year affects how you run the business. Three items change what a buyer will pay for it.
- The three that move price are the wage decision, the cost of debt, and anything that alters how durable your revenue is.
- The rest are compliance and cash flow. They matter, and they are not valuation events.
- The distinction is worth drawing deliberately, because owners routinely worry about the wrong half of this list.
It has been a busy year for things landing on an owner's desk. Most of them were reported as though each one were equally significant, and they are not.
Here is the list, and then the part that matters: which of these a buyer actually prices.
What landed
Payday super, from 1 July 2026. Super now has to reach the employee's fund within seven business days of paying salary or wages, with twenty business days allowed for new employees. Quarterly is finished.
The $20,000 instant asset write-off made permanent, from 1 July 2026. For businesses with aggregated turnover under $10 million, applying per asset. Announced in the 2026-27 Budget on 12 May 2026 and now law.
Award wages up 4.75 per cent, from 1 July 2026. The Annual Wage Review 2026 decision, taking the national minimum wage to $1,004.90 a week or $26.44 an hour, with a structural adjustment on top for the lowest paid.
The cash rate at 4.35 per cent. Raised 25 basis points on 5 May 2026, held on 11 August 2026.
Non-compete clauses to be banned below the high income threshold, from 2027. Announced policy with consultation behind it, aimed at employment contracts.
ATO interest charges no longer deductible, for general interest charge and shortfall interest charge incurred on or after 1 July 2025. A tax debt now costs more than it used to in real terms.
Foreign resident capital gains withholding at 15 per cent with no property value threshold, since 1 January 2025. If your sale includes the freehold, the clearance certificate is on the critical path.
Company failures up 34.2 per cent in the 12 months to 31 May 2025, at 13,413, with small business restructuring at 20.1 per cent of initial appointments.
Data breach notifications at an all time high, 1,205 in 2025, up 8 per cent on 2024, with 716 caused by malicious or criminal attack.
Which three move your price
The wage decision. It comes straight out of earnings unless it was passed on or offset, and a buyer will restate your accounts to the current cost base whether or not you do. This is the one with a multiple attached to it. What the wage rise did to your appraisal.
The cost of debt. Not because it changes your earnings, but because it changes how much of them a buyer can borrow against. It shows up as structure rather than headline price: more deferred, more vendor finance requested, longer finance clauses. What a buyer can actually pay.
Anything that changes how durable your revenue is. The non-compete reform sits here. If what holds your customers is a clause in a staff contract rather than something in the business, that is worth less than it was. What the non-compete ban means for your sale.
Which ones do not
The write-off, payday super, the interest deductibility change, the withholding rules and the data figures are all real and all worth attention. None of them changes what the business earns on a sustainable basis.
What they change is your cash flow, your compliance load, and the number of places where a sale can be delayed or a discovery can be made. That is a different category of problem with a different fix, which is mostly preparation.
The write-off is the one that catches people out, because it does not change value but it does change how value reads. A full deduction in one year leaves a hole in that year's profit, and a buyer pricing unadjusted earnings is pricing the hole. What it does to your add-backs.
The honest summary
Six of the nine are administration. Three of them are valuation.
Owners tend to spend their worry on the administration, because it arrives with deadlines and penalties attached, and to leave the three that actually move the number until a buyer raises them.
If you do one thing off this list, restate your last twelve months at today's cost base and look at what the margin does. That single page will tell you more about where you stand than the rest of the list put together.
Common questions
What has changed for Australian small business in 2026?
The largest items are payday super from 1 July 2026, the $20,000 instant asset write-off made permanent from the same date, the Annual Wage Review 2026 increase of 4.75 per cent to award minimum wages, a cash rate rise to 4.35 per cent in May that has held since, and an announced ban on employment non-compete clauses below the high income threshold from 2027.
Which changes actually affect what my business is worth?
The ones that change sustainable earnings or the durability of revenue. The wage decision changes earnings directly. The cost of debt changes what a buyer can fund against those earnings. The non-compete reform changes how much weight a contract clause can carry in holding customers. The others are real costs and real obligations, but they do not by themselves move a multiple.
Do I need to do anything before selling because of these changes?
Restate your earnings at the current cost base rather than last year's, make sure your add-backs have documents behind them, and be able to answer what holds your customers if a key person leaves. That is most of it, and all of it is worth doing whether you sell or not.
Keep reading
All notes on selling a business · All seller guides · What is my business worth?
Check it yourself
Primary sources, none of them affiliated with me and none of them endorsing this site. Where anything here differs from an official source, the official source is right.
Links open on external government and industry websites. The full list sits on licensing, registers and official sources.
Ask what it is worth
Free, in writing, and nobody finds out you asked. Tell me the trade and the suburb and I will do the rest.
Nobody finds out you are selling. This goes to me only, into my own database in Sydney. I will not contact your accountant, your landlord, your bank or your staff, ever, unless you ask me to.
If you would rather not put anything in writing yet, ring 0431 124 128. Prefer to pick a time yourself? Book a time in my diary.
Thinking about selling?
Thirty minutes, on the phone or in person, at a time that suits you including evenings. You will get a straight read on where the business sits today and what would move the number. It costs nothing, there is no obligation, and nobody finds out you asked.