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Business Services

Accounting and tax responsibilities that come with running a business

ASAP Accounting & Taxation can help you navigate the accounting and tax responsibilities that come with running a business.

We can advise you on the best structure to set up your business. We can also assist you in the setting up of a Company, Partnership, Trust or Self-Managed Super Fund.

Our team is experienced and dedicated to providing timely and proactive solutions for all your accounting, taxation and business needs. In fact our experience covers the whole realm of tax and associated accounting and business advisory, from compliance to growth and tax-effective strategies.

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Josie Taylor

Practice Principal, Josie Taylor is CPA qualified and has a Bachelor Degree in Accounting. She is also a Registered Tax Agent and has been in the taxation industry since 1997.

Amanda Foster

Amanda Foster holds a Diploma in Finance and Mortgage Broking Management. With extensive experience in the finance industry, Amanda has been dedicated to helping clients navigate their mortgage and finance needs. She is also a Registered Tax Agent and has been in the industry since 2009. She stays current with industry standards and practices through continuous professional development.
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Reducing Tax by Maximising Tax Deductions

What is a tax deduction?

The ATO criteria and definition of a tax deduction is:

  • It must be spent
  • It must be necessarily incurred in earning your income.

A definition we use is:

  • A tax deduction is an expense that is related to your income.

No matter how complex the system becomes with new taxes and different laws, fundamentally the basic formula applies; whenever you spend money to make money that's a tax deduction, but only if you were making money first!

"Willingness to look outside the box is required by both you and us."

The size of your tax deductions is directly related to your ability to know and track all your expenses.

Using our definition of a tax deduction, you can easily determine if an expense is a tax deduction or not. If you're unsure, then by all means ask us. A proactive accountant is one who works with you to really maximise your deductions, but it is up to you to first make sure you've tracked and included all possible expenses. If you don't tell ASAP Accounting & Taxation that you spent $100 on tolls or include it in your bookkeeping, how will it ever be deducted?

The simple act of seeing how an expense could legitimately be related to your income producing activity is the key and it also, incidentally, gives you a great index as to the pro activeness of your accountant. ASAP Accounting & Taxation are willing to try and see how an expense can be related we don't just dismiss the "tricky" ones without regard.

For example, if your job entailed a considerable amount of time working outdoors then safety sunglasses could be a related expense. But you'd have a tough time relating sunglasses to an office job!

Therefore, willingness to look outside the box is required by both you and ASAP Accounting & Taxation.

The first step, however, is to record the sunglasses as an expense. If you're ever in doubt as to whether an item is an expense or not, include it in your bookkeeping and nut it out with ASAP Accounting & Taxation at tax time. If you fail to record it in the first place then you've lost the opportunity to claim it altogether.

So part of being an investor or business owner is making that extra effort to record and claim all that you legitimately can. After all, you've worked for the money and by organising your paperwork you'll be able to keep that little bit extra in your back pocket!

So don't forget to stop and ask yourself "How can this expense be legitimately related to my income?"

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2024 Hot Spots

Every Tax Time, the ATO focusses on certain hotspots where taxpayers are prone – either accidentally or deliberately – to make errors.

So, what is on the ATO’s list this year? Expect them to be looking in particular at:

Record-keeping

Work-related expenses

The ATO recently claimed that there was an $8.7 billion shortfall between the tax individuals are expected to pay and the tax they are paying. The ATO believes that work-related expenses claims are the biggest element in that “tax gap” and have signalled that they’ll be looking closely at these deductions this year. Expect them to focus on:

  • Deductions for working from home expenses. The way these could be claimed changed last year, with the introduction of a new 67 cents per hour fixed rate and enhanced substantiation requirements. We expect the ATO to check claims thoroughly, particularly to verify whether taxpayers have a record of all their working from hours over the entire tax year, in the form of timesheets, a diary or copy of work rosters.
  • Similarly, in relation to working from home, deductions for “occupation” costs like rent, rates and mortgage interest are under the spotlight as they are not allowable unless you’re running a business from home.
  • Mobile phone and internet costs, with a particular focus on people who are claiming the whole (or a substantial part) of the bill for their personal mobile as work-related and people who are potentially “double dipping” (ie, claiming the 67 cents per hour working from home rate – which includes an element for mobile phone costs – as well as claiming their mobile costs separately).
  • Claims for work-related clothing, dry cleaning and laundry expenses
  • Overtime meal claims
  • Union fees and subscriptions
  • Motor vehicle claims where taxpayers take advantage of the 85 cent per kilometre flat rate available for journeys up to 5,000kms (the ATO is concerned that too many taxpayers are automatically claiming the 5,000km limit regardless of the actual amount of travel)
  • Incorrectly claiming deductions under the rule that allows taxpayers who have incurred work-related expenses of $300 or less in total to make a claim without receipts (the ATO believes that some taxpayers are claiming this – or an amount just less than $300 – without incurring the expenses at all).

Rental property income and deductions

Sharing economy income

Capital gains from crypto assets, property, and shares.

Instant Asset write-off

On 9 May 2023, as part of the 2023-2024 Budget, the Australian Government announced it will improve cash flow and reduce compliance costs for small businesses by temporarily increasing the instant asset write-off threshold to $20,000, from 1 July 2023 until 30 June 2024.

This measure has now passed Parliament.

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Australian Business Number (ABN)

ASAP can help register you for an ABN or re-Activate an old ABN with one simple phone call to (02) 4578 6088.

Your ABN is a unique 11-digit identifier that makes it easier for businesses to interact.

You will need an ABN to:

  • Operate in the GST system, including claiming GST credits
  • Avoid Pay as you go (PAYG) tax on payments you receive
  • Confirm your business identity to others when ordering & invoicing

Do You Need to register for GST?

You need to register for GST if you run a business or enterprise and your GST turnover is $75,000 or more ($150,000 or more for non-profit organisations).

If you're not registered for GST, check each month to see whether you've reached the threshold, or are likely to exceed it. If you're turnover exceeds the relevant threshold, then you must register within 21 days of reaching it.

ASAP Accounting & Taxation can help you register when you first register your business or at any later time.

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Single Touch Payroll is here!

What is STP?

STP works by sending tax and super information from your STP-enabled payroll or accounting software to the ATO as you run your payroll.

You will:

  • run your payroll
  • pay your employees as normal
  • give them a payslip.

Your pay cycle does not need to change. You can continue to pay your employees weekly, fortnightly or monthly.

Your STP-enabled payroll software will send a report to the ATO which includes the information they need from you, such as:

  • salaries and wages
  • pay as you go (PAYG) withholding
  • super liability information.

The employer reporting guidelines from ATO contains a full list of payments that must be reported through STP.

Super funds will also be reporting to the ATO. They'll let them know when you make the super payment to your employees' chosen or default fund. This is an important step toward making sure employees are paid their correct entitlements.

ATO systems will match the STP information to our employer and employee records.

If your employees have a myGov account linked to ATO online services, they will be able to see their year-to-date tax and super information in their Income statement. Their data is updated every time you report. For most employers, this will be each pay day.

At the end of the financial year you'll need to finalise your STP data. This means you are making a declaration that you have completed your reporting for the financial year.

Once you finalise your data, your employees' Income statement in ATO online services will be marked as 'Tax ready'. They, or their registered agent, will use the Income statement to lodge their tax return.

You won't need to provide the ATO with a payment summary annual report for the payments you report through STP.

If you currently lodge an activity statement you will continue to do so.