There are three main areas of tax that you need to deal with as an investor or business owner

• Tax – income Tax – (applicable to everyone)
• Tax – General Services Tax (GST) – (applicable to business )
• Tax – Capital Gains Tax (CGT) – (applicable to Share investments, business assets, property)

There are others such as luxury car tax, wine equalisations tax etc but they are not so common in most business owners” lives

The ATO regards almost any receipt as taxable under the Income Tax Assessment Act. It can either be a receipt where full income tax applies or a partial income tax effect.  Would you believe that under the income tax assessment act, if you received $10,000 for driving the getaway car for a bank robbery, the ATO expects you to declare it as income  in your tax return?   See Tax – Income Tax

Income Tax and GST  are integrated in any given transaction as most of the income that you generate and expenses that you pay have a GST component. This is not always the same as there are certain items that may be exempt or have a partial GST component.   See Tax -GST

Capital gains Tax applies when a ” Capital Gains Tax event” occurs. There may be no physical transaction occurring, but a CGT event has happened that gives rise to the application of capital gains tax at that point in time.  There are numerous situations where this happens and this is not understood by many people actually involved in a business enterprise or in an investment. It can have a nasty financial “sting’ and this is why you need good reliable advice as to how to structure your financial affairs as efficiently as possible.  In some cases Capital gains Tax can be deferred even if it still applies to the transaction.  See Tax – capital Gains Tax

The ATO is constantly checking business profit margins and for this reason it is essential for you to be aware of how profitable your business is compared to your competitors. If you are under the average for your type of business the ATO may check up on you to see why you are not showing the right level of profit.  You can discuss this with us and we can guide you as to what you need to do going forward. See Benchmarking Tax

Call us now on  03 9832 0900 to arrange a time to have a chat about your tax situation over a cuppa

• Benchmarking Tax – The ATO knows how much profit a business of your size should be making and therefore how much tax you should be paying. Talk to us no on how to avoid serios tax problems in the future. Call us on 9832 0900 to discuss your situation. We can provide a free no obligation 30 min consultation to discuss your business situation.