Tax Planning Successfully in 2024

Why we help out clients ‘tax plan’

Anticipating how tax may look year on year is crucial for a varied number of reasons. Primarily we like to focus our client’s attention on the following:

• Revisiting how those short, medium and long term goals are progressing since we last spoke
• Discovering any hurdles the business is struggling with to move forward
• Having another set of eyes to look at business performance and help problem solve those hurdles you don’t have an answer to yet
• Utilising any additional opportunities before the year closes out. These can be in the form of legislative tax changes being implemented for the coming financial year or schemes and incentives due to finish soon
• Highlighting projected cash flow impacts for the coming 12-18 months. This can be critical if your business has performed extraordinarily well and is now potentially staring in the face of a large tax bill. We want to ensure you have a plan to preserve your cash flow for when you inevitably need to fork the payment out to the tax office

Each of these can vary in importance depending on what’s relevant to your circumstances at the time. This is why we make a specific effort to tailor these points and more, specific to your business and family groups.

How we help clients ‘tax plan’

In short, we take a look at the numbers:

• How have the numbers shifted over the last 9 months? And,
• How do we expect them to shift for the remainder of the year?

We’re able to analyse those movements in conjunction with the knowledge we have of your business, objectively highlight the great and not-so-great performance points and gauge those against industry trends we have exposure to.

From this, we take a look at the tax impact of the business as well as the family group as a whole and suggest strategies to best utilize the cash coming back in the form of refunds or minimize how much you might have to pay and when.

Factoring in the impacts of the current economic climate, we’re able to raise potential risks you might not have experienced or been aware of as yet to ensure you’re ready to combat those if or when they crop up.

We take a look at how your group is structured to assess whether there’s a more beneficial configuration for the business, yourself and your family, while also considering what the consequential tax impacts may be.

Tax planning strategies

Let’s talk strategies. Some strategies are more straight-forward than others and as tax has an ever-changing face, it’s our job to talk you through those changes and how they might impact or benefit you.

We aim to build on the tools and advice we provide our clients each time we meet with them and they could include any or all of the following:

• Individual and company tax rate changes from 1 July 2024
• Other specific government incentives, schemes or changes in legislation - such as the Small Business Energy Incentive or Skills & Training Boost
• Different ways to manage real or potential business risks
• Re-assessing remuneration packages
• Factoring in how contributing to super could provide tax benefits based on your personal circumstances
• Taking stock of your groups’ assets and liabilities with regard to entity structures and asset protection
• Reviewing implications of Director Loans and/or unpaid present entitlements in regards to Division 7a rules
• Stock take of any obsolete products or assets that may need to be written off, or whether it’s unlikely you’ll be able to recover any outstanding debtors
• Revisiting Estate and Succession Planning

While there is a good portion of tax-related concepts in the information we provide clients, there’s a large portion of non-tax concepts and topics we can assist a great deal with, or put you in touch with trained experts in a specific field to get you the answers you’re looking for.

The right time for tax planning

Timing is key! Certain strategies that may come out of your tax planning discussions will need time to ensure they’re implemented to achieve your desired outcome.

Whether it involves wanting to utilize the Temporary Full Expensing measures for your business or getting that deductible super contribution for yourself personally – the specifics of when to execute those plans could mean the difference between the refundable tax position you were hoping for or a payable tax position you weren’t expecting!

Sometimes it’s not until looking at the hard numbers on a page that you see the impact of cost increases your business could be wearing, eating away at your bottom-line quicker than you think. Regular and consistent revisits to key aspects of your business is really important for staying on top of these changes.

It’s at this time every year that we make a pointed effort to sit down with our clients and re-evaluate what’s happened, and where necessary, assist in implementing changes for what’s expected in the coming months.

Getting the right tax planning advice

At the end of a tax planning session with your accountant, you should expect to walk away with more insight into your own business and a greater level of surety to make short to medium-term financial decisions.

If you don’t already receive advice from a trusted accountant or business adviser - could BLG be the answer you’re looking for? Please talk with us.

Seriously, getting a team on board to support you and your business when you need it is invaluable and we know we can help you out. Our team love having a chat and we love helping our clients.

If tax planning is specifically the service you’re after, then definitely make sure you get started now as you know the end of the year will creep up far quicker than you think.

Wishing you and your business every success!

*Please note that the above information is general advice only. We recommend you seek advice from a specialist relevant to your personal situation. This information is relevant at the time of publishing and is subject to change*