Optimising 2018 End Of Financial Year

Right now is the ideal time for you to assess your business’s financial situation, prepare for your income tax return, lodge any outstanding business activity statements, look for ways to minimise tax bills and plan for the best possible FY 2019

Tasks you’re required to complete by law can include:

Income tax return lodgement

BAS lodgement(s)

PAYG withholding payment summary annual report

Payroll Tax – consider whether your business may be over the threshold.

Fringe benefits tax return lodgement

Superannuation payments

Workers compensation insurance

ASIC annual report (for companies)

Government grants – if you’re receiving government grants, it’s a good idea to ensure you’re still meeting the required guidelines to receive these.

Not all of them will apply to your business, but it is good to run through the list and ensure all necessary obligations are met.

In the lead up to 30 June, there are some best practice suggestions that you can undertake:

Reconcile your accounts receivable. Follow up on any amounts that remain outstanding and if there are any unrecovered debts, write these off as a bad debt. This is an allowable income tax deduction.

If your business manages inventory, consider a full stocktake and revalue the inventory figure accordingly.

An effective strategy for small business owners trying to minimise their tax bill is to prepay services and defer income in order to reduce taxable income for the year.

For superannuation, it’s a good idea to make sure you are on top of all superannuation obligations. Employee superannuation contributions is an allowable deduction. If there are any amounts payable still outstanding, take care of these before 30 June (even earlier to allow for super fund processing times).

The end of financial year is also the ideal time to analyse the past 12 months and use this insight to plan for the future. Developing realistic budgets for revenue and expenses, tax planning for the year(s) ahead, reviewing insurances, setting business goals for the next three to five years, assessing risk management and even considering succession planning are all effective ways to help maximise opportunity.

If you’d like help to specifically optimise your own end of financial year, get in touch for a chat today.