Taximise tax accountants are registered as a Tax Agent with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Our tax agents provide tax services and advice in the following areas:

Local and international tax planning Income tax Capital gains tax Fringe benefits tax Goods and services tax SMSF

Preparation of income tax return for all entities Tax compliance and investigations Land tax Payroll tax Withholding tax Tax amendments for all entities

Taximise offer tailored taxation solutions for Individuals (tax return for residents and non residents), Businesses and Companies, Partnerships, Trusts, Superannuation Funds, etc. Our tax agents also prepare tax amendments for all entities, when so required. We strive to legally maximise your tax refund, and ensure a fast tax return with $0 upfront fee*.

From time to time, Taximise offer free half-hour initial consultations and other offers for all taxation matters. Please check our current offers for your tax lodgment fees.

If you would like to proceed and use our taxation services, either for tax lodgments or for tax amendments, please contact one of our tax agents to book an appointment. We have provided on our website checklists of essential information / documents that you should have details off / bring along with you for your appointment with one of our tax agents, in order to allow us to speed up the tax lodgment process with the ATO:

For Company, Trust and Partnership tax returns, the checklist is located here (link opens in a new window).

For SMSF (Self-Managed Superannuation Fund) tax returns, the checklist is located here (link opens in a new window).

For Individual tax returns, the form is located here (guess what?...link opens in a new window).

* Where applicable

 

Non Residents versus Residents

People that arrive to Australia on a one-year working holiday visa (for example many backpackers from Europe, UK, Ireland, Italy, Japan, etc) are regarded as non-residents for tax purposes. By law, the income tax for non-residents is calculated using the maximum tax threshold, and thus non-residents pay very high income tax. However this changes significantly by being regarded as a tax resident for taxation purposes, as shown below.

In general^*, the three main factors a tax agent may use to determine if one is a Tax Resident are:

• Have you been in Australia and stayed in the same area for 183 days (6 months) or more for the tax year ending 30th of June, and:
• Have you worked more than four to five months continuously with one employer full time, or:
• You worked for five months continuously with multiple employers.

Being regarded as a resident for taxation purposes means that one may be entitled to substantial tax refunds off the tax paid by one's employer at the 29% flat rate for the first $34,000; if one qualifies as a tax resident, then he or she will be entitled to a tax free threshold income of up to $6,000 per tax year (for the 2009 tax year) and a tax rate of 15% on the balance between $6,000 and $34,000. For example, a person that has stayed in Australia for the full financial year and is regarded as a 'tax resident', and had a taxable income of $34,000, may benefit of considerable tax savings, given that the refund would be around $5,660! Also consider that this amount may grow further by applying any other rebates, deductions and/or exemptions that one may be legally entitled to.

Contact one of our tax agents to explore the benefits that may be available to your particular circumstances. Please note that even if you submitted your tax already, and you found out subsequently that you may not have benefited of exemptions applicable to you, let us know and we will investigate if a tax amendment is appropriate for you, in order to rectify this situation.

Note that before you can apply for a tax refund you need a Tax File Number (TFN), PAYG summary and a copy of your passport.

* For more accurate residency determination you can log-on to the ATO and use the provided tools by going to our Useful Links page and clicking the Residency status link situated in the Tax essentials for individuals (Resident and Non-resident) category.

 

Taxation for Businesses

"Tax Basics Explained Simply" is a good, succinct introductory primer to basic business essentials from a taxation view point. The article touches on basic taxation and accounting aspects as they relate to setting up and running a business, such as ABN/ACN, the need for good bookkeping and accounting, cash versus accrual accounting, tax return and tax concessions, GST, PAYG, BAS, etc. The article can be found here. For more detailed information or information highly specific to your circumstances please make an appointment with one of our tax accountants at your earliest convenience.

For a wealth of detailed information on any of the taxation and accounting topics above and many others, please visit our Useful Links page.

 

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Our tax agents provide the following services in the Superfunds area:

Formation of funds (SMSF) Preparation of annual financial statements and member reporting Capital gains tax Auditing of superannuation funds Regulatory Returns

Investment & Contributions advice Administration and management of superannuation funds Structuring pensions Pension benefit services Fund compliance reviews

We also offer access to select financial / investment advisors to enable you to plan for your retirement.

The Australian Government web site contains essential information about the superannuation choices, regulations and obligations in Australia. We also recommend understandingmoney.gov.au for further information, tools and useful links about superannuation in Australia. Links to these resources can be found on our Useful Links page, under the Superannuation heading. 

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Our CPA accountants are qualified to take care of all your audit requirements

What is a Financial Audit and why is it wise to implement it?

Wikipedia offers a succint explanatory definition to the above question:

"A financial audit, or more accurately, an audit of financial statements, is the review of the financial statements of a company or any other legal entity (including governments), resulting in the publication of an independent opinion on whether or not those financial statements are relevant, accurate, complete, and fairly presented. Financial audits are typically performed by firms of practicing accountants due to the specialist financial reporting knowledge they require. The financial audit is one of many assurance or attestation functions provided by accounting and auditing firms, whereby the firm provides an independent opinion on published information. Many organisations separately employ or hire internal auditors, who do not attest to financial reports but focus mainly on the internal controls of the organization. External auditors may choose to place limited reliance on the work of internal auditors."

The External auditors may be governmental or non-governmental. Certified public accountants (CPAs) are external, independent auditors who are licensed by CPA Australia to provide auditing services.

Taximise approach the audit process a little differently. While the financial statement audit is the cornerstone of the audit, our philosophy involves gaining a complete and intimate understanding of your business. By combining our knowledge of your business and our expertise we are able to tailor our audit process to the nuances of your business and to provide insightful advice to management in addition to fulfilling compliance requirements.

Our approach provides a framework for examining financial and non-financial information flows that impact the financial statements and enables us to work with you to identify opportunities for improving your financial performance. We provide a continuous audit process. Your auditor stays in touch with you year-round, keeping up-to-date with your business and changing market conditions, and providing you with ongoing feedback on how your business decisions could affect your financial results.

Types of Audits

The two primary types of audits are financial audits and compliance audits. In a financial audit the management of a business asserts that the financial statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which are the applicable criteria. The financial statement auditor attests to the degree of correspondence between those financial statements and GAAP. Investopedia is a good resource for more information related to GAAP.

In a compliance audit, an individual or business asserts that it is complying with specific laws, regulations, policies or procedures. The compliance auditor provides assurance that the entity is, in fact, complying with those applicable criteria. In Australia, the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) is responsible for developing, issuing and maintaining Australian accounting standards and related pronouncements, while ensuring close links to global financial reporting standards. AASB makes available for public access relevant accounting standards as well as their interpretation. Relevant links are provided in our Useful Links page, under the Tax Essentials for Businesses and Companies heading.

Typical Stages of an Audit

A financial audit is performed before the release of the financial statements (typically on an annual basis), and will overlap the year-end (the date which the financial statements relate to). The following are the typical stages of a financial audit:

Planning and risk assessment, to be performed before the year-end.

The purpose of this stage is to understand the business of the company and the environment in which it operate, and in particular:

• the relevant industry, regulatory, and other external factors including the applicable financial reporting framework
• the nature of the entity, and its objectives and the related major business risks that may result in material misstatement of financial reports
• the entity’s selection and application of accounting policies
• the measurement and review of the entity’s financial performance
• assessment of entity's internal financial control system, its strength and weaknesses*.

* Eg, ability to overstate revenue, given the right incentive and potentially uncontrolled ability to do that; an auditor would typically increase the rigour of the audit procedures for checking the revenue figures.

Internal controls testing, performed before and / or after the year-end

Its purpose is to assess the operating effectiveness of internal controls (e.g. authourisation of transactions, account reconciliations, segregation of duties) including IT General Controls. If internal controls are assessed as effective, this will reduce (but not entirely eliminate) the amount of 'substantive' work the auditor needs to do.

Substantive procedures, performed after year-end

The purpose of this stage is to collect audit evidence that the management assertions (actual figures and disclosures) made in the Financial Statements are reliable and in accordance with required standards and legislation.

One of two methods may be employed:

• Substantive Analytical Procedures: where internal controls are assessed as strong, auditors can rely more on the existing internal controls. This method is based on the comparison of sets of financial information, and financial with non-financial information, to see if the numbers 'make sense' and that unexpected movements can be explained

• Substantive Tests of Detail: typically employed where internal controls are deemed as not appropriate or weak, and is based on selecting a sample of items from the major account balances, and finding hard evidence, e.g. invoices, bank statements, for those items.

Notes:

• This phase is usually performed after financial year-end. However in practice some audits involve a 'hard close' or 'fast close' whereby certain substantive procedures can be performed before year-end. For example, if the year-end is 30th of June, the hard close may provide the auditors with figures as at 30th of May. The auditors would audit income/expense movements between 1st of July and 30th of May, so that after year end, it is only necessary for them to audit the June income/expense movements and the 30th of June balance sheet (these are known as 'rollforward' procedures).

Finalization (end of the audit)

The purpose of this closing phase is to evaluate and review the audit evidence obtained, ensuring sufficient appropriate evidence was obtained for every material assertion, and to consider the type of audit opinion that should be reported based on the audit evidence obtained. All these are part of the report compiled by the auditor to management, as well as highlights of any other important matters that came to the auditor's attention during performance of the audit.

Contact one of our CPA accountants to explore how your business may benefit of our services in this area. Your first half-hour consultation is at a discounted rate!

 

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Change the way your business performs and create a life and business you really want, both with the financial results and business culture you desire!

How Taximise Business Finance Coaching can help

• It boost your financial skills and business knowledge: this becomes increasingly important as your business develops

• It assist with - and improve - your decision making process: good finance planning and accurate forecasting contribute to increasing the quality of your business decisions thus the  number of positive decisions made

• It opens access to Taximise business knowledge (knowldge that comprises past successes and failures of others), to improve the way you direct your business. Good finance coaching will help you solve problems once and for all rather than ‘putting out fires’

• It gives you access to an unbiased sounding-board and an objective view on the real conditions in your business

• It helps you reach your business goals quicker: most businesses encounter similar problems and there's a good chance we can immediately answer quite a few of your questions

• You gain someone to be accountable to: setting goals and meeting them is vital to the success of any entrepreneur

• It provides guidance in the creation of a sound financial model for your business and help you to continually build value in this important asset

• It ensures alignment between your business and your personal goals and ambitions.

 

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We provide support to clients in the preparation of the submission and defence of claims including consequential loss, breach of warranty, personal injury, valuations, matrimonial matters and professional negligence claims.

 

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Taximise tax accountants can offer expert advise to you when acquiring a new business or selling your current one. Our consultancy services in this area include every taxation, accounting and financial aspect of this process, such as: 

• Due diligence, investigation and analysis of your past, current and future tax and/or accounting positions
• Negotiation on behalf of the vendor or purchaser
• Liaison with solicitors
• Advice on equity and debt financing
• Structuring
• Business valuation

 

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We offer independent advice and assistance for all financing requirements including:

• Debt and capital restructuring
• Mortgage & Property finance
• Business loans and overdrafts
• Trade finance and factoring advice
• Leasing and hire purchase

in collaboration with our business partners.

 

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Taximise can assist you with:

• Corporate investigation and due diligence
• Mergers and Acquisitions advice
• Corporate secretarial services including maintenance of corporate registers and registered office service
• Strategic advice on local and international structuring

 

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Taximise management consulting services are centered on the establishment of accounting and cost information systems, and the design and implementation of computerised systems. Also included are the establishment of management of reporting systems and special studies relating to inventory control and other internal controls.

 

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Taximise services in this area encompass:

• Planning for future income and asset requirements
• Estate structuring for tax and management purposes
• Managing estate assets for beneficiaries

 

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Our CPA accountants cover all aspects of business succession matters, including:

• Management Buyout
• Trade sale
• Sale to investors
• Stock market listing

 

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