Every company registered with ASIC has to lodge a tax return each year, even if it made a loss or sat dormant. Working out how to lodge a company tax return for the first time trips up plenty of directors, especially when the ATO's rules on deadlines, income tax rates, and reporting requirements seem to shift depending on your business structure and turnover. The short answer is that you can lodge yourself through the ATO's Online services for business, or hand it to a registered tax agent who can also extend your deadline well past the standard 28 February cutoff. [...] READ MORE

Choosing between a unit trust vs discretionary trust trips up plenty of business owners, and it's an easy mistake to make when both structures get lumped together in generic advice online. One splits income and capital according to fixed unit holdings, the other leaves distributions entirely at the trustee's discretion, and that single difference changes how you're taxed, how assets are protected, and how easily you can bring in new investors down the track. If you're setting up a structure for a family business, a property investment, or a joint venture with unrelated parties, you need to know exactly how [...] READ MORE

Selling an investment property, a parcel of shares, or a business asset triggers a tax bill most owners don't see coming. Working out how to calculate capital gains tax in Australia isn't just plugging a sale price into a formula. You need the right cost base, the correct discount method, and an honest look at your other income for the year, because CGT gets added to your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate. This guide walks you through the actual calculation, step by step: establishing your cost base, applying the 50% CGT discount for assets held over 12 [...] READ MORE

If you're starting a business or thinking about registering one, you've probably come across the term sole trader and wondered exactly what it means for you. What is a sole trader in Australia comes down to one simple idea: you and your business are legally the same entity. There's no separate company structure, no shareholders, just you, trading under your own name or a registered business name, taking on all the legal and financial responsibility yourself. This guide answers the question properly. We'll cover how sole trader status works under Australian law, what it means for your tax obligations, and [...] READ MORE

If you have ever stared at your company's tax return wondering whether you should be paying 25% or 30%, you are not alone. The company tax rate australia businesses use depends entirely on whether you qualify as a base rate entity, and plenty of directors get this wrong or assume last year's rate still applies without checking. Here is the short answer: most small and medium businesses pay 25%, while larger companies and those earning too much passive income pay 30%. The test comes down to your aggregated turnover and how much of your income is base rate entity passive [...] READ MORE

Choosing the wrong structure at the start of your business costs Australian owners thousands of dollars in tax, admin, and legal headaches down the track. If you're asking how to set up a company structure, you're probably weighing up whether to trade as a sole trader, form a partnership, register a company, or set up a trust, and the honest answer is that it depends on your income, your asset protection needs, and where you plan to take the business over the next five years. This guide walks you through each structure available in Australia, what it actually means for [...] READ MORE

If you run a business in Australia, understanding what is BAS lodgement isn't optional, it's one of your core obligations to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). A Business Activity Statement (BAS) is how you report and pay several tax obligations, including GST, PAYG withholding, and PAYG instalments, on a regular cycle. Yet for many business owners, BAS lodgement sits somewhere between confusing and stressful. Due dates shift depending on your reporting period, lodgement methods vary, and the penalties for getting it wrong, or lodging late, can add up fast. The good news is that once you understand how the process [...] READ MORE