ATO requires all taxpayers who own a business to keep records of all financial transactions entered into during the year. Wherever a taxpayer is required to make a choice, an estimate or a calculation, documented details must be kept. This also includes documentation explaining how your income and expenditure figures were determined. All taxation records must be kept for a minimum period of five years and penalties and interest may apply if you fail to do so.
As the end of the financial year is fast approaching, we’ve put together a checklist of what you’ll need to provide to your accountant:

• a copy of your accounting/bookkeeping program files, eg MYOB, XERO, Quickbooks
• bank statements indicating:
  •  the nature of each deposit and expense
  •  total interest received/paid
  • closing balance as at 30 June
• reconciled cashbooks including any drawings taken from your business before banking
• debtor listings as at 30 June  (and a list of unrecoverable debts);
• creditor listings as at 30 June
• stock value at 30 June
• dates and cost of any purchase made during the year and/or proceeds of sale of any assets (plant and equipment or property)
• dates, descriptions and costs of any additions or improvements to assets
• list of all business assets showing dates of purchase, price and description, details of any repairs and maintenance, and any finance arrangements including hire purchase
• details of any government-related payments, grants or rebates
• copy of statements for all loans owed by the business (and total interest paid for the year), with balances as at 30 June
• copies of payment summaries and annual salary/ wage reconciliation
• details of superannuation contributions made for each employee
• details of expenditure on motor vehicles, including fuel, oil, registration, insurance, repairs and maintenance, plus
  • current log books
  • odometer readings for the first and last date of the financial year
  • total business kilometres travelled for the financial year
• details of insurance policies (copies of certificates) and total premiums paid;
• travel diary and travel documentation (if you travel for business)
• details of petty cash expenditure
• anything else that may impact your tax liability, that you deem relevant, for example, your new lease for premises or details of a new entity you may have created during the year.

Don’t put off completing your end of financial year tax return. The sooner you know your tax liability, the better you can budget to pay it and lodge it at a time that best suits your business. Check with your us for the tax dates that apply to you

​Courtesy of SBDC

Tips to Make a Profit in your Business

• Try to Pay Early:

For your staff, superannuation guarantee payments aren’t due until July but if you are paying these in June they will give you a deduction for them in this financial year as against to next financial year.
 

• Having any companies and trusts?:

For minimize tax payments, the trusts and companies have to distribute funds to recipients on less tax.
 

• Structure:

If you operate as a partnership, sole trader, in a company or trust, it’s always a good idea to analysis your current business structure.
 

• Immediate write offs:

For eligible businesses, assets cost is below $20000 (until June 2018) can be reduced immediately and then applied to the purchase of assets.
 

• Bad Debts:

If you are not paying money, for claim the tax deduction  by good to write these off as a poor debt prior to 30th June.
 

• Trading Stock:

By using stock rate to write off any lost, obsolete stock or damaged and it decrease your taxable income.
 

• Stationery:

Before 30th June, stocking up on stationery and consumables can help for offset profits.

Investment in the correct place is crucial for maintaining portfolio and wealth management of an individual or group or any other entity nowadays. This is because money kept idle means no chances of getting multiplied and can even witness a decline in the value as well. On the other hand, money if invested in the right way can lead to huge profits and gather a certain amount of fund that can be utilized in the future. These can be ensured with the help of appropriate investment strategies.
​Types of investment strategies
The collection of rules, systems and procedures related to investment are known as investment strategies and the type of investment will vary from one person to another based on the income, assets, family details, work details and various other factors. Given under are the main pillars of investment:

• Structured savings plan.
• Gearing of installments.
•  Need of an investment in diverse field with re-invest income and regular withdrawal plan.
• Lump sum gearing.
• Insurance bonds that are tax effective.
• Macquarie leveraged equity.
• NAB super lever.

Hence, all these factors must be taken into account while deciding upon he investment strategy of a particular person so that the maximum profit can be assured

​A type of trust strategy based on superannuation aiming at providing financial benefit to the members or trustees on retirement is known as Self Managed Super Fund or SMSF. This is a special type of super fund that is exclusive in its own way because it comprises of members ranging within one to four and all are considered as trustees of the SMSF. In this trust structure, every member has equal importance and everybody is entitled to the benefits of the funds in times of need. There is a considerable amount of control present in this type of SMSF.
​Features of SMSF
SMSF works with completely different set of rules and therefore, it has got a separate Tax File Number (TFN), Australian Business Number (ABN) and transactional bank account that are required to manage their funds after retirement. The various strategies that are utilized under SMSF are:

• Trust deed based SMSF.
• Establishment of corporate trustee.
• External experts ought to be employed.
• In specie contribution.
• Investment strategy based on superannuation structure, trustee responsibilities and limited recourse borrowing.

Broadly, there are individual trustee and corporate trustee under the SMSF investment strategy. Financial experts need to be consulted to get enlightened more about SMSF strategies during retirement.