Business

A year-end tax planning checklist for your business

3 MIN READ February 18, 2021
As we’re approaching the end of the tax year, it’s important that you’ve got all of your bases covered. We’ve put together the below checklist of things to remember to get your financials in top shape.

Know what you can and can’t claim as an expense 

Knowing when income is gained and expenses incurred can have a significant impact on your taxable income for the year. Haven is well-versed on what expenses you can claim – we can help to make sure you’re correctly recording income and expenditure in the appropriate year.

If you own a rental property, the determination of whether expenditure is repair/maintenance or capital in nature is an important one to make. There is a thorough step-by-step process involved in identifying the asset, and then determining the nature of the expense. Haven can talk you through these new guidelines and what they mean for your rental property.

Check when your income needs to be recognised

Did you know you can recognize some income on a cash basis? Other income needs to be recognized on an accrual basis, where income is deemed to have been gained once the services have been performed and businesses need to pay tax accordingly.

Review your accounts receivable for bad debts

An important step in your year-end processes should be the thorough review of accounts receivable balances to determine which of these are no longer likely to be collected. These can then be written off as a bad debt and a deduction can be claimed.

Check your imputation credit balance

If your imputation credit account is in debit at 31 March, you’ll need to pay further income tax and will be charged an imputation penalty tax. Get in touch with Haven today for assistance on how to clear any imputation account debits.

Understand your Government Tax Relief options

There are a few options the Government has put in place for tax relief, including the reintroduction of depreciation on commercial buildings, the temporary loss carry-back scheme, and the employee reimbursement of $400 plus $20 per week tax free to cover costs associated with home office and working from home during COVID. If you’d like to know more about these initiatives and what they mean for you, just give us a call!

Important things to note:

  • Did you know from 31 March 2021 Income over $180,000 will be taxed at a higher rate of 39%? If your company is in a position of surplus reserves, you may want to consider paying a dividend prior to 31 March to make use of the lower 33% rate. Keep in mind it isn’t enough to just declare the dividend prior to March, it must actually be paid prior to this date. 
  • Consider restructuring your motor vehicle expenses with the Fringe Benefit tax rate increasing from 1 April 2021 to 63.93%. You could consider reimbursing an employee for using their own vehicle, as this is deductible to the business and tax-exempt to the employee. We have seen some companies selling company vehicles to their employees at market value – not a bad idea! Talk to Haven if you want to know more. 
  • There are new Trust disclosures coming into play that need to be considered. The definition of a settlor in a trust has also been expanded from 1 April 2020. A beneficiary owed more than $25,000 by a trust will now be a settlor, and interest will be charged. If either of these affect you, get in touch with Haven today.

 

 


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