We professionally prepare all types of returns past & current years including: •Individual •Partnership •Company •Trusts •Self Managed Super Funds •BAS returns •FBT returns
All tax returns are lodged electronically and fees can be payable from refunds.
We can also advise on: •Goods and services tax (GST) •Capital gains tax (CGT) •Fringe benefits tax (FBT) •Land tax •Workers compensation
Proactive Tax Planning
The best time to save money on your taxes is four to sixteen months before they are due, and this requires expert planning. We provide one-on-one proactive tax counsel to meet your unique personal and business needs. The typical client benefits the most from the expert tax advice in: year- end strategic planning to help minimize your tax liability: effective and timely structuring of your personal and business transactions: executive compensation planning: money saving self employment and payroll strategies: Successful retirement and estate planning.
We can assist in strategic business planning, risk assessment and management accounting, which will provide better management information for planning, controlling and decision-making.
A Business’s Plan is an important tool in running a successful business and setting financial goals and objectives for your business through a Budget and Cash Flow.
A well-structured Business Plan is an essential management tool in evaluating business performance and developing the business strategy.
We can assist in the preparation of a quality business plan, budget and cash flow and the ongoing evaluation of actual performance against plan, so that informed decisions are made.
Business Formation
Start up, expansion, and sale of a business are included in business formation. Many important decisions and financial commitments are involved in starting a new business or selling an old one. The tax effects can be dramatic without careful consideration and thoughtful planning.
Business Planning
Establishing short-term and long-term goals and effective methods of achieving them is essential to successful business management. Our firm can assist you in developing a comprehensive business plan that will help you identify and achieve your goals.
Consulting Services
Our most important goal is to assist you and your company in increasing after-tax profitability. The close working relationship we share with our clients gives us better understanding of their overall financial goals. We offer a broad array of valuable consulting services including cash management, risk management (insurance). financing, business valuation, compensation and benefit plans, computer-based accounting systems, succession planning for family owned businesses, mergers and acquisitions, health care, compliance with government regulations, litigation support, software evaluation and setups.
Internal controls review
Our firm will help you protect your assets by analysing and improving your existing internal control systems. We are available to identify areas of vulnerability and recommend long-term solutions.
Organisational Consulting
Our firm can provide expert advisory services to assist you with such issues as organisational structure, job descriptions, performance appraisal, teambuilding, communications and other human resource concerns.
Diagnostic review
Interested in achieving more efficient and profitable operations? Have our team perform a diagnostic review of your business operations to pinpoint those areas where efficiency and profitability can be enhanced.
Banking Relationships
Our firm can provide valuable assistance in establishing maintaining or expanding current banking relationships. We assist you to professionally organise and prepare your all-important banking proposal.
Budgets and Cash Flows
In the current economic climate any business advantage that you can have over your competitors is of paramount importance. One of the most important factors that can give you a large advantage over your competitors is effective cost management. Just think of how much easier it would be to manage the day to day operations of your business if you knew that the costs of the business were being effectively managed and controlled.
The most effective method of doing this is through a thorough and precise cash flow statement and budget. A cash flow statement is as the name suggests is a statement that forecasts your cash inflows and outflows and lets you quickly and easily identify areas of concern, allowing for easy rectification and also allows you to easily plan for those times when the bills just seem to be piling up.
I am sure all of you have prepared a budget of your household finances at some stage; well a business budget is exactly the same thing only on a larger scale. It will help you to identify areas where costs can be cut or just general changes can be made.
Budgets and Cash Flow Statements can be prepared for you easily and quickly. With these statements in hand you will be armed with a very effective tool in maximising your business profitability.
We offer the full range of other accounting services to help keep your business running smoothly. Our bookkeeping services include monthly operating statements, bank reconciliations, payroll, audit trails, balance sheet, financial graphs and budgets. We realise that most small businesses can not afford a full-time accountant but still need the expertise at times. We are there when you need us!
Reasons why you should use MYOB • You save time on bookkeeping and paperwork because many bookkeeping tasks are handled automatically making it easier to do business. • You can easily generate reports to see how your business is going. • Your business can grow with MYOB, it will help you to plan for the future, it will create projected balance sheet, profit and loss statement and cash flow formats. • You can customise it to work the way you want. • It is specifically designed to be flexible and adaptable to a wide range of businesses. • You can share data with Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook
Superannuation funds are a great way to take control of your future, to ensure that you are responsible for achieving your retirement goals, and to become accountable for the financial performance and returns of your own investments. You in effect become the master of your own destiny.
With this power (and reduced tax rates) comes significant responsibility. For example, the superannuation fund cannot:
Borrow any money
Lend money to members or associates
Acquire assets from members other than listed shares or business premises
Allow the members to receive any personal benefit whatsoever
In essence, the SOLE purpose of the fund is to provide for an aged pension in retirement.
SMSF's are required by the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act 1993 to be audited every financial year. Because a SMSF can provide access to substantial tax concessions, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) have a vested interest in ensuring the SMSF's are used in a legitimate manner, for their primary purpose of providing benefits for retirement.
There is an extensive list of requirements that a SMSF must comply with in order to be deemed a complying fund, which it is my duty as an auditor to report to the ATO on. The most important requirement is that the SMSF be maintained for the purpose of providing retirement benefits to the members of the fund,. Other requirements detail procedures that support this primary purpose, such as the following:
The SMSF must have and follow a written investment strategy that does not expose members to undue risk.
The SMSF is prohibited from lending or providing financial assistance to members or relatives of members.
The SMSF is prohibited from acquiring assets from related parties- exceptions being listed shares and business real estate at market value, and assets that do not exceed 5% of the value of fund assets.
Benefits generally can only be paid when a member reaches a particular age, and must be paid when they reach another age, which differs according to their personal circumstances.
Once you have decided that Self Managed Superannuation Fund meets your requirements, we can assist in setting up and running a self managed superannuation fund, along with assisting with rollovers from public funds into your own private fund.
We can also assist with the ongoing administration of a fund; however we will not be involved in making recommendations as to what you are investing in. We may discuss with you broad asset allocations such as commercial property, residential property direct shares, and managed funds or to her investment opportunities, but we will not tell you which one to invest in, this is your choice and yours alone.
Once the fund is setup, you must have an investment strategy. We will then assist you in the administration on a day to day basis, and in preparing your annual reporting obligations such as financial statements, taxation returns, members statements, documentation of minutes, and preparation of your members contribution statements.
Specialist software is available to you to assist managing your superannuation fund, and we can assist you to set this up and ensure that you have adequate internal controls, systems and processes in place to manage and prepare your financial reporting obligations.
All superannuation funds require an annual audit, which we can also undertake for you. As a matter of internal control and compliance with industry standards, we will ensure that a different accountant, suitably qualified, will undertake the Statutory Audit of your superannuation fund in accordance with the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act.
BSA reviews are another form of audit carried out for builders and trades people, who are required under the Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 to have a BSA review done if their turnover exceeds $250,000. The purpose behind this law is to ensure builders are sufficiently solvent to meet their debts.
This is accomplished by requiring builders to have a sufficient amount of current assets to current liabilities, and a minimum amount of net assets. The current asset/liability ratio is the same regardless of turnover, whereas the minimum net assets required increases as turnover increases.
If a company is used to carry on business, it must have a BSA license, with a qualified individual as a nominee. Currently as the law stands, if the company has insufficient assets in its own right to meet the tests, a deed of assurance can be signed which pledges the assets of a elated party as guarantor for the company.
Businesses are usually valued when they are on the market for sale, or conversely when a purchaser wants to ascertain the fair value of a business. Other instances might be when an insurance company or bank requires a formal valuation of a large company, or when a sole trader or partnership business is converted into a company structure.
When your company is involved in a merger, business start-up, acquisition or liquidation, it is important that your accounting firm provide expert advice in properly structuring the transition. We have extensive experience in handling business transactions that can affect your company's profitability. In addition, we act as independent consultants, offering you objective assistance to establish methods of business valuation and to perform due diligence.
The main purpose of the valuation for third parties such as banks and insurance companies is to provide evidence of formal procedures that are followed in arriving at particular valuation. They need to know that a particular valuation is supported by a systematic methodology taking into account a number of factors such as the following:
Strength of market competitors
Size of current marketplace
location of business
possible future competitors
diversity of customers and suppliers
proposed government regulations
marketplace trends
management structure of business
value of plant and equipment
value of customer goodwill
Most business owners would already have their own opinion on the maximum and minimum value of their business. In the case of buying a business for instance, the market price is already a reasonable starting point. However, an independent valuation could save many times over what it costs, simply because a "gut feeling" might overlook one or more pertinent factors. A formal business valuation does not necessarily guarantee an accurate valuation; because valuations can be subjective according to different people. It does however; provide an additional benchmark and basis for decision making.
Our primary objectives for any client is to ensure that an environment exists to ensure that a client has the opportunity to create wealth, hold assets safely whilst minimising business and personal risk.
The secondary objectives of these structures is to ensure tax liabilities are reduced to the minimum allowable under the law, and ensuring maximum funds are available to develop wealth and future investments.
These structures generally involve (subject to individuals specific circumstances) setting up trading companies with adequate insurance cover for businesses, establishing discretionary business trusts to hold all business assets, establishing discretionary investment trusts to hold all investment assets, and family trusts to hold personal assets.
This way, any risk from business is quarantined to the company and personal risk is minimised as the persons are not holding assets, so even if you personally get sued, you do not loose everything you worked for.
Then superannuation (either public or self managed) is considered as a long term strategy to ensure excess funds are available to fund a client's retirement.
Using these structures and techniques ensures the primary objectives are met. However the big issue that we must address is to ensure that these structures are effective, practical and understood by the clients.
Technology is dynamic, and changes everyday. All businesses must adapt to change, the must try and keep up with advances in technology, to ensure that what you do is efficient and effective. This will assist in providing good quality, exceptional service, representing value for money.
One way to do this is to:
Keep your technology up to date
To ensure that you have systems and procedures in place to manage your business when you are not available to manage it
The knowledge to run your business is not inside your head, but documented and complied with by all staff within a knowledgebase management system.
Ensure that you have software that meets your information and business needs so that you can make an executive informed decision based upon reliable data
There are various information systems available to meet your needs, and there are many that will not meet what you need. It takes due diligence and intensive evaluation of your specific business needs and a system of evaluating all alternatives, reviewing your needs in light of the alternatives, negotiating with suppliers, and making a selection.
Once you have made your choice, the documentation, conversion, implementation and utilisation of your investment is paramount. This requires good planning, co-ordination, training and more training, along with good change management and human resource management to ensure that your investment is accepted, utilised and achieves the goals and objectives you expected.
Once you have everything running smoothly, you must ensure that it continues to run and operate, this means putting some thought into disaster recovery, then documenting this, and testing it.
As such, we can assist you at all stages, in particular:
Evaluating your business needs and documenting what you currently have
Identifying opportunities, requirements and your opportunities
Making recommendations in relation to your hardware requirements
Evaluating alternative systems and selection of the most appropriate available system that exceeds your business needs
Assist in the negotiation, documentation, implementation and ongoing support of your software
Ensure that once it is up and running, it stays up and running, ensuring you have adequate backups and offsite management of your investment