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Tax Planning and Hot Spots for 30 June

Tax Planning and Hot Spots for 30 June

With the end of the 2018 income tax year rapidly approaching, this article draws attention to year-end tax planning strategies and compliance matters that you need to consider to ensure good tax health. It focuses on the most important issues for small to medium businesses to consider.

One interesting procedural matter this year is that 30 June 2018 falls on a Saturday, meaning that ATO payments or lodgments due on that day or on Sunday 1 July can be made on Monday 2 July 2018 without incurring a general interest charge. However, where practically possible, all actions, payments or lodgments should be undertaken before Friday 29 June 2018.

This “date shuffling” conundrum should be kept in mind when reference is made to actions to be undertaken by 30 June 2018.

The following is general information. Contact us to find out more.

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10 Things Every Small Business Needs To Do To Succeed

10 Things Every Small Business Needs To Do To Succeed
As a business advisor and accountant, I am often asked what a small business needs to do in order to succeed. It's a simple enough question but there are so many things small business owners need to know, need to be, and need to do in their businesses. So I asked a number of my most successful clients what they thought about the question, and, using my own experience gained over the last 30-plus years, I have collated the top 10 things that a small business needs to do to succeed. 1. Make sure that you are marketing effectively. From experience, I cannot stress enough how important marketing is to the success of any small business. The problem is that most small business owners are subject matter experts - they are good mechanics, good lawyers, good accountants, good toy retailers, good garment manufacturers - and this means that they try to make their business succeed by being good at what they do. Unfortunately, that is not enough. A business succeeds only if it finds and continues to find customers. Some of these will come from word-of-mouth or reputation but the volume of these new customers will not be enough to grow your business. So, you...
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Setting Up Your Accounting System

Setting Up Your Accounting System
While our focus is on advice to you after the accounts are prepared - on issues like your future-proof strategies, how to grow sales, making your business efficient - nevertheless we base our advisory work on numbers. So naturally we care very much how you set up your accounting systems. Whether your software or manual system, and your system around it is appropriate for you, whether the information is accurate (garbage in - garbage out), whether it is secure, whether it is efficient - all these details affect what our ongoing advice might be. Whether you are thinking of starting your first or new business, or whether you are dissatisfied with how you "keep your books" at the moment, it is important to set up your accounting system correctly. In order to help you we have prepared an extensive, free checklist on setting up your accounting system. (more…)...
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Tax Updates March 2018

Tax Updates March 2018
In this tax update:
  • Bill to implement housing affordability CGT changes
  • Changes to small business CGT concessions
  • Bill to change residential property GST arrangements
  • ATO moving to combat the black economy
  • Corporate tax avoidance: ATO's latest targets

Bill to implement housing affordability CGT changes

As part of the 2017–2018 Budget, the Federal Government announced a range of reforms intended to reduce pressure on housing affordability. Legislation has now been introduced into Parliament that proposes to:
  • remove the entitlement to the capital gains tax (CGT) main residence exemption for foreign residents; and
  • modify the foreign resident CGT regime to clarify that, for the purpose of determining whether an entity’s underlying value is principally derived from taxable Australian real property (TARP), the principal asset test is applied on an “associate inclusive” basis.
The Bill also proposes to amend the tax law to provide an additional discount on CGT for affordable housing. The discount of up to 10% will apply if a CGT event happens to an ownership interest in residential property used to provide affordable housing. The main residence exemption means that CGT doesn’t apply...
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