Why tax planning only works before 30 June
A tax return records what already happened. Tax planning changes what happens next. Once the financial year closes, nearly every lever is locked: the income is earned, the expenses are incurred, the trust has or hasn't resolved its distributions. What's left is tidying up.
That's why we treat tax planning as a scheduled event, not an afterthought. From around April we start pulling together year-to-date figures, estimating where you'll land and mapping out the choices available. The earlier we start, the more room there is to move.
For business owners who've only ever had a once-a-year accountant, this is usually the biggest change. The first year of proper planning tends to be the one where people wonder why nobody did this before.
What a tax planning review covers
A tax planning review is a structured look at your whole position: the business entities, the people who own them, and the money moving between them. We're not just looking at the company's tax bill. We're looking at the total tax paid across the group and the family.
You get a written summary with recommendations and the reasoning. If something needs an action before 30 June, we flag it with a date.
- An estimate of taxable income for each entity and each individual
- Timing of income and deductible expenses around year end
- Superannuation contributions and whether they're worth making
- Trust distribution resolutions and who receives what
- Dividends, franking credits and Division 7A loan balances in companies
- Asset purchases, depreciation and any current ATO incentives
- Upcoming obligations like PAYG instalments and GST so cash isn't caught short
Tax planning strategies that actually move the needle
Most tax planning comes down to three questions. When is income recognised? Who is it taxed to? And what rate applies? Timing, ownership and structure. Everything else is detail.
Timing is the simplest. Bringing forward a deductible expense or deferring an invoice can shift income between years. It doesn't make tax disappear, but it can smooth a spike and improve cash flow. Ownership is where trusts and companies earn their keep, because they can give you choices about where profit lands. Structure is the long game: a group set up well generally has more options every single year.
We also look at the boring stuff that often gets missed: unpaid super, private use of business assets, loans to shareholders, and whether the bookkeeping even supports the position you want to take. Clean records are a tax planning strategy in their own right.
Tax planning for trusts and companies
Trusts and companies give you options, but only if the paperwork is done properly and on time. A discretionary trust generally needs to resolve its distributions before 30 June. A company paying dividends needs to think about franking and any loans to shareholders. Miss these and the ATO's default outcomes are rarely the ones you'd choose.
We work through the group as a whole: which entity earns what, where the losses sit, which individuals are in which position, and what the family's overall result looks like. For multi-entity groups this is where good planning pays for itself many times over.
If the review shows the structure itself is the problem, we'll tell you. Sometimes the right answer is a restructure rather than another year of working around it.
What tax planning is not
It's not a scheme. Tax planning means using the rules as they're written, with proper records and sensible commercial reasons. Anything that sounds too clever usually is, and the ATO has seen it before.
It's also not just about paying less tax this year. Spending a dollar to save a fraction of it is a bad trade. Buying an asset you don't need in June is a bad trade. Good planning keeps the business goal in front and the tax outcome behind it.
How our tax planning process works
We start with current figures, which is why clients on our bookkeeping and BAS service get the most out of planning. From there we estimate, model a few scenarios, and meet with you to walk through the options. You decide. We action and document.
Then we build the outcomes into the year-end work, so the tax return reflects what was planned rather than what was found in August. Clients across Brisbane, Logan and Queensland can meet us at Victoria Point, Jimboomba or by video.
Questions we get asked
When should tax planning start?
Ideally from April, once there's enough of the financial year behind you to estimate the full-year result with confidence. That leaves time to action decisions before 30 June. Businesses expecting a big change, like a sale, a new entity or a large contract, often benefit from planning even earlier in the year.
Is tax planning the same as tax minimisation?
They overlap, but tax planning is broader. It's about understanding your likely position early and making deliberate choices around timing, ownership and structure. Paying less tax is often a result, but the aim is a better overall outcome for the business and the family, using the ATO's current rules properly and with records to back it up.
Do sole traders need tax planning?
Often, yes. Sole traders have fewer levers than a trust or company, but timing of expenses, superannuation contributions and the question of whether a different structure would suit are all worth reviewing. The planning conversation is frequently where a sole trader works out it's time to grow into a new structure.
What is a trust distribution resolution?
It's the formal decision by a discretionary trust's trustee about who receives the trust's income for the year. It generally needs to be made before 30 June and documented properly. Getting it wrong, or missing it, can lead to outcomes nobody wanted. It's one of the main reasons trusts need planning before year end, not after.
What do I need to bring to a tax planning meeting?
Current bookkeeping is the main thing, which is why Xero clients find this easy. Beyond that, anything you're considering before year end: equipment purchases, hiring, super contributions, property, a new business, or selling one. The more we know about what's coming, the more useful the plan will be.
