Tax Return Planning
It is highly recommended that you keep receipts for all expenses and possible tax deductions you are considering claiming for you or your business. It is also a good idea to scan and file them electronically so that they are accessible should you need them for audit purposes.
Sole Trader to Company
Whether you’ve been in business for years or you’re just starting out, choosing the right structure for your business is important. It is a consideration that is not only important from the start, but as your business grows and develops.
Simple business restructure
The final tranche of 2015 small business budget announcements have made it into law, now expanding the tax relief available for small businesses to change the legal structure of their business. This new arrangement is designed to provide greater flexibility for small businesses to change legal structures without incurring an immediate CGT liability, and allowing it to defer CGT to a later point in time.
Basics of Salary Packaging
Salary packaging is one way for an organisation to increase the take-home pay of its employees — and if done correctly, at no extra cost to the business but with a tax advantage to the employee.
Business Assets – Personal Use
Is there a problem with using your company’s assets for yourself? Assets that belong to your business but that are being used for your own benefit or enjoyment can potentially trigger a tax issue known as “Division 7A”.
Loan interest for refinancing in partnerships
A general law partnership is formed when two or more people (and up to, but no more than, 20 people) go into business together. Partnerships are generally set up so that all partners are equally responsible for the management of the business, but each also has liability for the debts that business may incur.
Income Splitting
Now and then the ATO issues warnings on how its general anti-avoidance legislation can apply to professional firms that allocate profits to individual professional practitioners with proprietorship in the firm. Firms potentially affected include those providing services in the accounting, architectural, engineering, financial services, legal and medical professions.
Foreign resident tax update
In a bid to strengthen Australia’s non-resident Capital Gains Tax (CGT) regime to assist in the collection of tax liabilities, measures were introduced on 1 July 2016 aimed at the collection of CGT from the sale of direct and indirect interests in taxable Australian property by foreign tax residents.
Family Farm Stamp Duty Exemption
The Family Farm Exemption allows landowners to transfer land used in primary production to relatives without the imposition of stamp duty. This legislation was introduced to encourage younger family members to stay on the farm and continue running the business
Succession Planning
It is never too early or too late to think about succession planning for your business, however, it is strongly recommended that you start thinking about making a plan from the first day of ownership, regardless of whether you wish to own the business for 3 years or 35 years. Things change constantly in business, so by having a succession plan allows you to prepare for the unexpected, even though the plan may change throughout the years. Nobody wants their hard work and invested time to go to waste when they decide it’s time to step back.
