Tax Planning – Your Guide To Ensuring You Have No Surprises Come Tax Time

Do you hate surprises? We do too!

Whether it’s an unexpected payment or speedbump in your business, surprises can be unwelcome and challenging.

When it comes to expenses in your business, we believe in having “no surprises”, especially when it comes to tax. Many people think that “tax time” is after the end of financial year, but for our clients, it’s actually a few months before the financial year. NOW, is actually the best time to assess how your business has performed, because you have 10 months of meaningful data, AND there’s still some time to make changes to your strategy.

It’s all about planning ahead, to get ahead.

Tax planning is a great time to review any changes in your personal financial situation or in your business. Whether it’s a change in your personal life, such as having a child, redundancy, economic environment changes, or you have changed lifestage, we are always evaluating our advice to ensure it suits your situation and the strategy is still relevant to your goals.

Tax planning also provides a chance to organise your affairs so that you are aware of your options and can take advantage of strategies that could achieve a more optimal tax outcome. Depending on your situation, this tax planning process could save you thousands of dollars.

Here are a few things you can do in addition to the holistic review we’ll do when considering tax planning.

Review your debtors


Review your list of outstanding debtors/receivables and write off those you know you’ll never get paid for. For those operating on an accruals basis, your tax is payable on any of those invoices you have issued, regardless of if you get paid.

Do a stocktake

The closing amount of stock at the end of financial year can directly affect your business profit. The higher the stock value, the higher your profit which means the higher your tax is. Review your stock levels, and if you have old stock, it’s time to get rid of it or re-value it.

Write off any eligible business assets

Do you have any obsolete assets? If so, you may be able to depreciate these assets (pooling) which will increase the depreciation expense. It’s not appropriate for all businesses but definitely worth looking into.

Delay income

If you are able to delay income to after June 30, then it can’t be taxed this financial year. Check your budget and your monthly cashflow, or we can help you with this.

Superannuation contributions

If you pay your superannuation contributions prior to the financial year, you claim the deduction sooner. Why wait a whole year to claim your tax deduction?

Bonuses for employees


Finalising all employee bonuses before the financial year end is another way you can ensure you can claim a deduction in this year and reduce this year’s tax.

If any of the above items apply to you, then we need to talk. The sooner you have your tax planning meeting, the sooner your Altus Adviser can help you improve your business or personal position.

---

 

Tax Planning Tips Video

Principal Client Adviser Marc Walsh shares three great tips on tax planning.