What information do I have to provide my accountant at tax time?

Have you asked yourself whether you've got everything you need to do your taxes? If you haven't been collating your data over the last year, you might be in a mad rush to get it all together. Try and organise a system. Whether that means putting your receipts into a shoe box, a manila folder or a filing system, it will make tax time a whole lot easier for you and your accountant.

So what do you need to keep a hold of?

If you're an employee you will need to have your income details including your wages and investment income.

Make sure you keep a record of:

- Your group certificate/s
- Bank statements
- Dividend notices and interest payments
- Documents detailing your rental income
- Capital gains your investments including shares and real estate
- Work allowances
- Reportable fringe benefits
- Exempt income
- Pension payments
- Foreign income
- Prizes and rewards
- Summaries of benefits from Centrelink
- Gifts over $10,000
- Records of your mileage and your odometer readings

For business owners, ensure you organise the following.

- Have your PAYG ready to be sent out by the 14th of July
- Are you using MYOB? Make sure you've updated it to the most current version to ensure you have the latest tax tables
- Reconcile wages
- Rollover your MYOB to the new financial year
- Records of your mileage and odometer readings

Make Life a Little Easier for Yourself

- Top up your super contribution. Employer super guarantee contributions are included in the 25,000 and $50,000 concessional deduction caps.
- Delay invoicing customers or receipt of income until 1st of July
- Offset capital losses against capital gains made during the years
- If you're a small business with a turnover less than $2 million you can claim an immediate deduction for the cost of depreciable assets which cost less than $1,000 and some repayments including lease and rent expenses.
- Dispose of slow-moving stock and write-off obsolete stock before June 30.
- Write off bad debts and claiming back the GST credits where debt has been outstanding for more than 12 months.
- Review PAYG installment obligations and consider changing for June 2010 quarter if the estimate of the business income tax payable for the year is less than the installments raised by the ATO.

Accounting and Bookkeeping Procedures

- Ensure your BAS lodgments and super guarantee contributions are up-to-date. Where the business is behind on tax and BAS payments, ensure arrangements have been organised with the ATO.
- Report salary sacrifice contributions on employee's 2010 PAYG Payment Summaries.
- Organise to complete stock takes of Inventory.
- Ensure data files and paperwork is up-to-date and accurate.

Start Planning for 2010-11

- Prepare or update your business plan to regain direction for the business.
- Update the budgets for the next 12 months and compare to current budget.
- Review insurances to ensure adequate level of coverage.
- Reduce costs in areas identified as excessive in the current year.
- Implement new internal control systems to address weaknesses identified.

It's Tax Time!

Come and meet the 123 Business Partners team this Thursday at our end of financial year sausage sizzle. We hope you can make it!

Kevin out, Julia in.

As you've no doubt heard Kevin Rudd has just been given the boot as the nation's Prime Minister and Julia Gillard has now stepped into the role. What do you think about having Julia Gillard as the new Australian Prime Minister? Interesting times are no doubt ahead for the country, but what does this means for our financial and business future? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

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