Tax Planning

  The top 7 illegal employee tax saving strategies in Australia are:   Employees or contractors not declaring cash wages. Not reporting capital gains on the sale of shares or property. Not declaring interest, dividend or rental income. Not declaring overseas income like wages, capital gains, rent, etc. Claiming private expenditure as a work deduction…

There is nothing wrong with being a novice tax planner (it’s actually very exciting taking the challenge and starting the journey to learn something new). But the most important thing we need to do is just follow Plato’s advice and make a start. Over time we will build our skills and hopefully move to at…

In the novice stage, a person follows rules as given, without context, with no sense of responsibility beyond following the rules exactly. Competence develops when the individual develops organisational principles to quickly access the particular rules that are relevant to the specific task at hand; hence, competence is characterised by active decision making in choosing…

This quote by Plato, the Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, sums up the central issue some accountants have with tax planning – they just cannot get started. The day to day grind of servicing the needs of compliance clients leaves them with…

Most practice principals meet the Tax Practitioner Board requirements of thirty hours accounting and tax training per year. Unfortunately, this is normally exclusively related to their compliance related services with no training on value added services such as tax planning. A search of all the accounting professional bodies extensive training and website resources comes up…

All important client advice should be provided to the client in writing (irrespective of whether also provided to the client verbally as well). This practice is recommended by both the ATO and professional bodies to protect both the client and the practice. A tax plan fits into this important category so should definitely be in…

Even if accountants are well trained and utilising tax planning software it will still take 2-3 hours (on average) to complete the six stage tax planning process for a client. Skipping any of the six stages, or not spending adequate time on a stage, will result in a substandard result for the client. The tax…

As discussed previously, 90% of practices don’t actually provide tax planning services to their clients for a fee. That is not debatable and is a fact supported by the data. What is interesting though is that most of those practice principals will tell you they do provide tax planning services to their clients, but just…

Accounting practices have six options available to them in relation to providing tax planning services. Some practices will choose one option (strategic pathway) and others several. In addition, over time different practices will change their focus and add/or delete different options. No one pathway will fit or suit all practices. The six tax planning service…

The Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) was a tax on profits generated from the mining of non-renewable resources in Australia.  The tax, levied on 30% of the ‘super profits’ from the mining of iron ore and coal in Australia, was introduced on 1 July 2012. Supporters of the tax pointed to continually-large profits produced by…