5 ways business owners can accidentally trigger a tax audit
It all starts with a notice from the ATO You are busy running your business, juggling the day-to-day and keeping busy with customers, employees and back-end work. Out of the blue, you receive a letter from the ATO telling you that an audit of your company and business operations has been completed. At the end of the letter, you find a full-course […]
Challenge an ATO decision
Challenge an ATO decision An ATO decision stands until someone displaces it, and that someone is you. A notice has arrived from the ATO with a number on it you don’t accept. Disagreeing isn’t enough on its own: an assessment is treated as correct until you show that it isn’t, inside a window that is […]
Respond to a Director Penalty Notice
Respond to a Director Penalty Notice A company tax debt has just become your debt, and the clock is running. The notice in your hand moves your company’s unpaid PAYG, GST or superannuation onto you personally. Which of your options survive depends on the type of notice and on 21 days that started running when […]
Respond to an ATO review or audit
Respond to an ATO review or audit The ATO is asking you to account for decisions you made years ago. Four years ago you and your accountant treated a transaction a particular way. A letter has now arrived asking you to explain it, and what you can show is whatever you happened to keep at […]
Get your personal income tax position right
Get your personal income tax position right We will make sure you pay what you owe, and that you can show why that is the right number. Most people with a complicated tax return did not set out to have one. It accumulated. A rental property, some shares, a family trust distribution, a redundancy payment, […]
Understand the tax when a business winds up
Understand the tax when a business winds up We will map every tax obligation that closing the business triggers, and the order they fall due. Closing a business does not end its tax obligations. It triggers a final set of them, and several fall due after trading has stopped. Disposing of the assets can produce […]
Apply for a private ruling from the ATO
Apply for a private ruling from the ATO We will frame the question so the answer you get back is one you can actually rely on. A private ruling is the only way to make the Commissioner’s view binding before you act. You set out the facts and the question, the ATO applies the law […]
Understand your cross-border tax position
Understand your cross-border tax position We will tell you which country taxes what, and how to avoid paying twice on the same income. Two countries can each have a legitimate claim to tax the same income. That is not a loophole or a mistake. It is what happens when one country taxes you on where […]
Sort out your land tax
Sort out your land tax We will check how your properties are grouped, and whether the assessment is more than you owe. Land tax is assessed on what you hold, not on what you earn from it. That single feature is what makes it painful. A property that is vacant, negatively geared or between tenants […]
Structure an expansion offshore
Structure an expansion offshore We will design the offshore structure before you commit, because unwinding one afterwards is far more expensive. When you take a business offshore, Australia’s tax rules do not stay behind. A set of provisions exists specifically to tax income earned through foreign entities you control. The controlled foreign company rules, transfer […]