3.1. Who can open an Account?
The Macquarie Business Savings Account is available to Australian Businesses that are proprietary companies or sole traders and is designed for customers who, at the point of acquiring the product, require an account for business use.
To open an account, the Primary Applicant must be 15 years of age or older, have an Australian driver’s licence or passport, and either be:
- the director of a proprietary company, or
- a sole trader.
To open (and keep open) an Account, all Applicants must have:
- a permanent Australian residential address
- an Australian mobile phone number, and
- a valid email address.
This is a digital-only account and therefore you must have internet access and an electronic device to operate this product.
There are further eligibility requirements to opening an Account, which form part of the application process. Additionally, you cannot open or keep open an Account where we reasonably consider you to be a financial institution.
3.2 Acknowledgement and warranty as to business purpose
You acknowledge that the Account is available for business use only and warrant that you are establishing the Account primarily for business purposes.
3.3 Number of Accounts
A Business may have one open Account at any one time and if a Business Customer has more open Accounts, we may place a stop on those Accounts in accordance with section 8 (Stopping and closing your Account).
3.4 Directors
This section 3.4 (Directors) only applies if your Account is held in the name of a company.
You authorise and instruct us to follow any instructions given by any director(s) at all times unless we have been notified of a dispute involving one or more directors, in which case we may take such steps as we consider reasonable in the circumstances, which may include requiring all transactions to be approved by two or more directors.
Any director on an Account may:
- access information about the Account
- make withdrawals and payments from the Account using any method agreed by us (including, without limitation, Online Banking and Mobile Banking)
- change details on the Account, and/or
- close the Account.
3.5 Tax File Number (TFN)
You may need to pay tax on interest earned on your Account. We recommend that you seek independent tax advice.
If you have a TFN or Australian business number (ABN), you may quote it to us when you open an interest bearing Account or at a later time of your choosing. Macquarie is authorised to collect individual's TFNs under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth).
It is not compulsory for you to supply us with your TFN and it is not an offence if you decline to quote your TFN to us. However if you do not supply us with your TFN or an exemption status or quote your ABN, then we are required by law to deduct withholding tax from any interest earned on your Account at the highest applicable marginal tax rate, plus the Medicare Levy, and forward this amount to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
If you tell us your TFN, we are required by law to pass it on to the ATO. We will not tell anyone else your TFN and will keep it confidential. We will comply with the guidelines set down by the Privacy Commissioner and we will not use your TFN for any purpose other than as required by this section 3.5 (Tax File Number).
Where the ATO is satisfied that a TFN is not the correct one, the ATO may notify us of that fact and:
- substitute the correct TFN, or
- remove the incorrect TFN.
Where the TFN is removed, withholding tax may be charged until the correct TFN is provided.
If we deduct withholding tax in error from your investment distribution or interest income (for example, you quoted your TFN but we failed to record it) and this is discovered before 30 June of the current tax year, we may refund to you the amount of withholding tax previously deducted and correct all reporting provided to the ATO for tax purposes.
If we deduct withholding tax from your investment distribution or interest income because you chose not to quote your TFN, you forgot to do so, or an error was discovered post 30 June of the relevant tax year, we will not refund you the amount of withholding tax previously deducted. In these circumstances you may be able to claim a credit for the withholding tax in your income tax return and we recommend you seek independent financial advice.
Where you are not a resident of Australia for income tax purposes or you have an address outside of Australia recorded, we will deduct withholding tax from interest earned on your Account at the rate of 10%.
