With 2023 entering the rear view mirror and 2024 on the horizon, businesses across Australia should be proactively planning for their accounting and taxes for the coming year.
Below are our top five tips for tax planning for the coming year:
-
Stay Informed and Up to Date with Tax Changes
Every so often, changes are made to business taxes that you may or may not be aware of. Failing to stay up to date could mean, at best, that you’re missing out on tax deductions and paying more than you ought to; at worst, you could fall out of compliance if you aren’t keeping your finger on the pulse.
The Australian Taxation Office regularly publishes news to keep citizens and business owners informed of any changes or updates to taxes, as well as providing resources and tools to maintain compliance.
Naturally, the best way to always be on top of these sorts of changes is to outsource your taxes to a reputable and professional tax and accounting firm in Melbourne such as Badawy Large & Powers.
-
Maximise Your Tax Deductions & Tax Credits
Did you purchase new equipment or machinery for your business? Perhaps you’ve grown your vehicle fleet with one or more new company vehicles? There are many things which can be classified as business tax deductions and some which cannot, so knowing the difference can mean potentially lowering your tax burden and paying far less than if you had forgotten (or worse, not even known about).
There are also many other types of concessions and offsets that can lower your tax burden, depending on the nature of your business operations. These should also be taken advantage of whenever possible and reasonable to do so.
-
Planning for Superannuation
Do you have employees working towards their retirement? In many cases, you as an employer will have to pay the super for your employees. While not much changes with regards to super year over year, 2024 may be a good excuse to make sure you haven’t missed or made any late super guarantee payments and to double-check that you’re still fully in compliance.
Again, a professional tax and accounting firm in Melbourne can look into your company’s super and make sure that everything is in order and that you are fully compliant.
-
Revise Your Strategic Business Planning for 2024
The new year can also give you an impetus to make changes or improvements to your strategic business planning efforts. In many ways, the taxes you are liable to pay are results of business activities and not necessarily a reflection of how efficient those business activities are.
It’s often possible to ‘cut corners’ and to streamline business processes in order to benefit your business whilst simultaneously lowering your tax burden as a consequence. Improving cash flow inflows/outflows is one example of how you can optimise your business.
-
Capital Gains Taxes Concessions
You may already be paying capital gains taxes (CGT) on privately held assets such as equities, bonds, or crypto, but your business may also have many assets that may be subject to CGT as well as some that may qualify for concessions.
This could include the sale of a business property or other assets, but normally depreciable assets such as machinery and vehicles cannot qualify for concessions. Moreover, knowing when to buy/sell a particular asset if it is within your control to choose can greatly impact how much you may be liable to pay in CGT. In other words, it may be possible to lower your tax burden by applying strategic decision-making to the sale of CGT-liable assets.
Badawy Large & Powers
Consult with us at Badawy Large & Powers for tax planning and accounting services in Melbourne.