With the end of the tax year fast approaching, it is important that business owners take the time to do some tax planning now.  Why, because after 30 June 2025, it will be too late and you may end up paying more tax than you need to.

Here are 7 business tax tips to legally minimise your 2025 tax position.

1. You don’t want to pay tax on any income you have not yet earned. Therefore, you need to review your debtors and write off any debts you are not sure you will not collect on or before 30 June 2025.  Don’t worry, you can still chase the debtor and if you manage to collect the cash after 30 June 2025, you can include that in next year’s tax return.

2. If you have stock, make sure you do a stock take and assess the value of all your stock. If any stock is unsaleable for any reason, formally write this off on or before 30 June 2025.  If the selling price of any stock is less than the cost, value the stock item at the selling price ex GST.

3. Superannuation is only tax deductible when paid. If you pay the June quarter super on or before 30 June 2025 you can claim the deduction against your 2025 income.

4. If you are the business owner, considering topping your superannuation contributions up to $30,000 for each individual.

5. If you are going to pay your staff bonuses for the work they have done, consider paying these on or before 30 June 2025. You can then claim an immediate deduction.    If you don’t have the cash to pay these before 30 June, consider doing all the necessary reviews and paperwork documenting and approving these bonuses before 30 June, and if done properly you may still be able to claim a deduction in the 2025 for these.

6. Businesses with revenue under $50 million, can claim an immediate deduction for expenses paid up to 12 months in advance. For example, if the rent for July to September was paid in June, you can claim all of this in your 2025 income tax return.

7. If your business has aggregated turnover of less than $10m, you can immediately write off any individual asset of up to $20,000 in cost, as long as it is ready for use by 30 June 2025.

Contact Wayne on wayne@arealcfo.com.au or 0412 227 052.

Click on the below buttons to access free Resources developed by Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO to help your business scale and grow profitably

Want a confidential discussion on your business situation, help with your grant application or to learn more about my Outsourced CFO Services, simply email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052

With the end of the tax year fast approaching, it is important that business owners take the time to do some tax planning now.  Why, because after 30 June 2024, it will be too late and you may end up paying more tax than you need to.

Here are 8 business tax tips to legally minimise your 2024 tax position.

1. You don’t want to pay tax on any income you have not yet earned. Therefore, you need to review your debtors and write off any debts you are not sure you will not collect on or before 30 June 2024.  Don’t worry, you can still chase the debtor and if you manage to collect the cash after 30 June 2024, you can include that in next year’s tax return.

2. If you have stock, make sure you do a stock take and assess the value of all your stock. If any stock is unsaleable for any reason, formally write this off on or before 30 June 2024.  If the selling price of any stock is less than the cost, value the stock item at the selling price ex GST.

3. Superannuation is only tax deductible when paid. If you pay the June quarter super on or before 30 June 2024 you can claim the deduction against your 2024 income.

4. If you are the business owner, considering topping your superannuation contributions up to $27,500 for each individual.

5. If you are going to pay your staff bonuses for the work they have done, consider paying these on or before 30 June 2024. You can then claim an immediate deduction.    If you don’t have the cash to pay these before 30 June, consider doing all the necessary reviews and paperwork documenting and approving these bonuses before 30 June, and if done properly you may still be able to claim a deduction in the 2024 for these.

6. Businesses with revenue under $50 million, can claim an immediate deduction for expenses paid up to 12 months in advance. For example, if the rent for July to September was paid in June, you can claim all of this in your 2024 income tax return.

7. If your business has aggregated turnover of less than $10m, legislation is currently in front of parliament to allow you to immediately write off any individual asset of up to $20,000 in cost, as long as it is ready for use by 30 June 2024. This may be subject to a late change and increased to $30,000.

8. Businesses with aggregated annual turnover of less than $50m may have access to a bonus 20 per cent tax deduction for the cost of eligible depreciating assets, that support energy saving upgrades and more efficient use of energy, which are first used or installed ready for use between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024. The deduction is capped at up to $100,000 of total expenditure on eligible assets.  But this also has not passed parliament yet.

If your tax advisor is not being proactive with you about these business tax tips, and any tax tips around your personal situation, find yourself a new tax advisor.

Contact Wayne on wayne@arealcfo.com.au or 0412 227 052.

Click on the below buttons to access free Resources developed by Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO to help your business scale and grow profitably

Want a confidential discussion on your business situation, help with your grant application or to learn more about my Outsourced CFO Services, simply email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052

There is a special class of companies, called Early Stage Innovation Companies (ESIC), that are eligible for certain tax incentives that they can pass onto their investors.  Making investing in these businesses potentially more attractive than investing in other businesses.

What are the tax incentives?

There are 2 incentives available:

• A non-refundable tax offset equal to 20% of the investment, which arises in the year of the investment. In other words you can use this tax offset to reduce the tax payable on other income, which can be used over several years.
• A modified CGT treatment which includes disregarding the capital gains (and losses) on shares held in an ESIC between 1 and 10 years.

For a sophisticated investor, there is no investment limit but the maximum tax offset is capped at $200,000 on $1m+ investment.

If you are a not a sophisticated investor, there is a maximum investment of $50,000 in any income tax year and a maximum tax offset of $10,000.

How does your business qualify as an ESIC?

Your business will qualify as an ESIC if it is not a foreign company and meets:

• The early stage test; and
• Either the 100-point innovation test; or Principles-based innovation test

Note these tests are conducted at the time of the investment in the business and if the investment is over several periods you will need to retest.

You can self-assess, seek an advisor comfort letter or seek a private ruling from the ATO.

Early stage test

For the early stage part, the company must meet 4 requirements, which are:

• Your company must be incorporated or registered on the Australian Business Register within the last 3 income years; or incorporated within the last 6 income years, must have incurred total expense of $1m or less and across the last 3 income years
• Your company’s (plus any wholly owned subsidiaries) expenses did not exceed $1m in the previous income year
• Your company’s (plus any wholly owned subsidiaries) assessable income did not exceed $200,000 in the previous income year, and
• Your company’s equity interest is not listed in the official list of any stock exchange in Australia or abroad.

100-point innovation test

To qualify for the 100 point innovation test, the company must obtain at least 100 points by meeting certain objective innovation criteria such as whether the company has claimed the research and development tax incentives, participated in an eligible accelerator program, or previously obtained external investment.

This is tested immediately after the relevant shares are issued to the investor (test time).

Principles-based innovation test

There are 5 requirements of the principles-based test.  The company:

1. must be genuinely focused on developing one or more new or significantly improved innovations for commercialisation.
2. has high growth potential
3. has the potential to be able to successfully scale up.
4. has the potential to address a broader than local market.
5. has the potential to be able to develop a competitive advantage for that business.

What investments qualify for the ESIC investments

Apart from the company needing to qualify as an ESIC, for the investor to get the tax incentives, investors must have purchased new equity shares directly from the company.

And the investor can’t:

• be a public company or a wholly owned subsidiary
• invest more than $50,000 in any 1 tax year in 1 or more ESIC’s if not a sophisticated investor test
• be an affiliate of the ESIC at the time the shares are issued
• Acquire shares under an employee share scheme
• immediately after they are issued with the new shares that carry the right to:
  1. Receive more than 30% of any distribution of income or capital by the company.
  2. Exercise, or control the exercise of, more than 30% of the total voting power in the company

Learn More

Click here to read the ATO guidelines on ESIC

Wayne Wanders is an experienced Business Advisor and Outsourced CFO who can help to scale and grow your business profitably. Wayne may also be able to assist you in preparing any grant application. 

Contact Wayne on wayne@arealcfo.com.au or 0412 227 052.

Click on the below buttons to access free Resources developed by Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO to help your business scale and grow profitably

And Wayne is always posting about new grants, funding options and other resources on LinkedIn that can help your business scale and grow profitably.  Click on the below links and connect with Wayne or follow A Real CFO on LinkedIn.

Want a confidential discussion on your business situation, help with your grant application or to learn more about my Outsourced CFO Services, simply email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052

If you are a business with annual turnover of less than $10m, don’t forget that the small business instant asset write-off of up to $20,000 per eligible asset finishes on 30 June 2024.

And the key is that the asset must be first used or installed ready for use on or before 30 June 2024.

And if you want help to scale and grow your business profitably, please to contact me below

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Discovery Session to learn how your business can scale and grow profitably

To ensure Wayne helps your business specifically, the best approach Wayne has found is to have an obligation free Discovery Session with you.  In this session we will review your current business in a factual and objective manner, to better understand the challenges that you face.

At the end of this Discovery Session, you will have multiple ideas on how your business can scale and grow profitably.

Simply fill in the contact form below or email Wayne at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call Wayne on 0412 227 052 to organise one of these obligation free Discovery Sessions.

To get Wayne to help your business, simply use the contact form on the left to email Wayne or call him on 0412 227 052.

Here are 5 factors to consider when deciding if you should set up your business as a sole trader or company.

Risk

I use the example of sole trader paramedic who runs medical tents at school boy rugby union carnivals.  What would happen if someone was seriously injured at one of these events (which has happened at similar events) and the paramedics insurance company denied full cover?

As a sole trader, the paramedic could lose their house if the parents sued them.

If:

• the business was set up as a company, there is a layer (like a brick fence) between the paramedic and the family which could help save the paramedic’s house.
• you or your partner have assets, or you are in a high risk business, you need to seriously think about operating as a company (and the cost of having a company as insurance).
• you have no assets or the risk is very low, then operating as sole trader may be the option for you.

What your Clients Want

I have seen it from time to time, that the client wants to do business with a company rather than a sole trader.  If this is the case for your clients, then you have no choice but to set up as a company.

Also for some businesses, they may see a company as much bigger than just a sole trader.

Your future funding plans

You need to understand what your future funding plans are.

If you want to look for investors for example, rarely will they invest in a sole trader.  So you must have a company

Also, sole traders are not eligible for some grant programs.  The Research and Development Tax incentive in one such example.  So if you are thinking of accessing grant programs, you may be forced to be a company.

Your Staffing plans

A sole trader can employ staff, but you can become personally liable for a whole range of issues around such.  What if they get injured in the workplace?  What if they sue for unfair dismissal?  Having staff increases risks to you and you may want to be a company to reduce this risk

Taxation

In many cases there are tax advantages from being a company as compared to a sole trader.

Not only may you be legally able to split income but also in many cases, business can deduct more expenses than a sole trader can.

Summary

In my view there is no right or wrong answer here.  Circumstances may dictate that you need to operate as a company.  Other times it will be your choice and there is nothing wrong if you start out as a sole trader and switch to a company later (for example when you are about to employ your first staff member)

If you want more information on setting up a company ASIC has some great information.  Click here to learn more

If you want help to improve your your businesses chances thriving and surviving in these uncertain times contact me below.

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Discovery Session to learn how your business can scale and grow profitably

To ensure Wayne helps your business specifically, the best approach Wayne has found is to have an obligation free Discovery Session with you.  In this session we will review your current business in a factual and objective manner, to better understand the challenges that you face.

At the end of this Discovery Session, you will have multiple ideas on how your business can scale and grow profitably.

Simply fill in the contact form below or email Wayne at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call Wayne on 0412 227 052 to organise one of these obligation free Discovery Sessions.

To get Wayne to help your business, simply use the contact form on the left to email Wayne or call him on 0412 227 052.

There is a special class of companies, called Early Stage Innovation Companies (ESIC), that are eligible for certain tax incentives that they can pass onto their investors.  Making investing in these businesses potentially more attractive than investing in other businesses.

What are the tax incentives?

There are 2 incentives available:

• A non-refundable tax offset equal to 20% of the investment, which arises in the year of the investment. In other words you can use this tax offset to reduce the tax payable on other income, which can be used over several years.
• A modified CGT treatment which includes disregarding the capital gains (and losses) on shares held in an ESIC between 1 and 10 years.

For a sophisticated investor, there is no investment limit but the maximum tax offset is capped at $200,000 on $1m+ investment.

If you are a not a sophisticated investor, there is a maximum investment of $50,000 in any income tax year and a maximum tax offset of $10,000.

How does your business qualify as an ESIC?

Your business will qualify as an ESIC if it is not a foreign company and meets:

• The early stage test; and
• Either the 100-point innovation test; or Principles-based innovation test

Note these tests are conducted at the time of the investment in the business and if the investment is over several periods you will need to retest. 

You can self-assess, seek an advisor comfort letter or seek a private ruling from the ATO.

Early stage test

For the early stage part, the company must meet 4 requirements, which are:

• Your company must be incorporated or registered on the Australian Business Register within the last 3 income years; or incorporated within the last 6 income years, must have incurred total expense of $1m or less and across the last 3 income years
• Your company’s (plus any wholly owned subsidiaries) expenses did not exceed $1m in the previous income year
• Your company’s (plus any wholly owned subsidiaries) assessable income did not exceed $200,000 in the previous income year, and
• Your company’s equity interest is not listed in the official list of any stock exchange in Australia or abroad.

100-point innovation test

To qualify for the 100 point innovation test, the company must obtain at least 100 points by meeting certain objective innovation criteria such as whether the company has claimed the research and development tax incentives, participated in an eligible accelerator program, or previously obtained external investment.

This is tested immediately after the relevant shares are issued to the investor (test time).

Principles-based innovation test

There are 5 requirements of the principles-based test.  The company:

1. must be genuinely focused on developing one or more new or significantly improved innovations for commercialisation.
2. has high growth potential
3. has the potential to be able to successfully scale up.
4. has the potential to address a broader than local market.
5. has the potential to be able to develop a competitive advantage for that business.

What investments qualify for the ESIC investments

Apart from the company needing to qualify as an ESIC, for the investor to get the tax incentives, investors must have purchased new equity shares directly from the company.

And the investor can’t:

• be a public company or a wholly owned subsidiary
• invest more than $50,000 in any 1 tax year in 1 or more ESIC’s if not a sophisticated investor test
• be an affiliate of the ESIC at the time the shares are issued
• Acquire shares under an employee share scheme
• immediately after they are issued with the new shares that carry the right to:
  1. Receive more than 30% of any distribution of income or capital by the company.
  2. Exercise, or control the exercise of, more than 30% of the total voting power in the company

Learn More

Click here to read the ATO guidelines on ESIC

Wayne Wanders is an experienced Business Advisor skilled in analysing business financial performance and cash flow. Wayne may also be able to assist you in preparing your grant application.  Contact Wayne below for a free no obligation session.

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Business Survival Session

One of the stimulus measures announced during Covid was temporary full expensing.

Temporary full expensing allows:

• Businesses with an aggregated turnover of less than $5 billion to immediately deduct the business portion of the cost of eligible new depreciating capital assets.
• Businesses with an aggregated turnover of less than $50 million, to immediately deduct the business portion of the cost of eligible second hand depreciating capital assets.

For example if you need a new computer for business you may be able claim a tax deduction of 100% of the cost of that computer in the year your bought this.

Well this temporary full expensing, finishes up on 30 June 2023. 

The eligible assets must be first held, and first used or installed ready for use for a taxable purpose, by midnight on 30 June 2023.  If it arrives on 1 July 2023, it is not eligible.

So if you think you may need some capital equipment replaced in the near future, and you have the funding to do so, make sure the asset is installed ready for use by midnight on 30 June 2023

Important notes

• You need to check that the asset you want to claim is an eligible asset. Assets located overseas, buildings and some other assets are not eligible assets.
• There may be a cap on the amount you can claim for a deduction for motor vehicles.
• If you only use a portion for business, you can only claim that portion as a deduction.
• If you buy a work truck for $30,000 and claim a 100% tax deduction under temporary full expensing; and you trade this in in say 4 years for a new vehicle and get a $10,000 trade-in. This $10,000 trade-in may be assessable income for you.

Make sure you talk to your tax professional to understand the best option for you.

Wayne Wanders is an experienced Business Advisor skilled in analysing business financial performance and cash flow. Wayne may also be able to assist you in preparing your grant application.  Contact Wayne below for a free no obligation session.

Also, if you want some more information on grants, contact me below

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Business Survival Session

At the end of this session, you will have multiple ideas on how your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times.

Simply fill in the contact form below or email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052 to organise one of these obligation free sessions.

Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO

wayne@aRealCFO.com.au

1.0          Introduction

This week we will see a bunch of people get together at the 2022 Jobs and Skills Summit to discuss how to address the shortage of appropriate workers many businesses in the Australian economy are facing.

This get together is by special invite only.  Regular business owners and other interested parties  will only get a chance to formally put their views forward to Treasury, sometime later this year.

And as not being one of the invited people, I thought I would share my thoughts on the Jobs and Skills Summit and some ideas to help address the shortage of appropriate workers.

My first concern about the Jobs and Skills Summit is that it may just end up being a talk fest with nothing concrete coming from it that actually helps business in the short term.

Yes we need some changes long term, but right now if small business can’t survive in the short term, what is the point of looking long term.

And I am worried that this talk fest may result in more red tape placed on small business owners.  Making it harder and more cumbersome to employ staff than it already is for these business owners.

If I was in charge of the Jobs and Skills Summit, I would have the first session focused 100% on solving the immediate problems facing many employers in finding appropriate workers.  And to me this is simply around:

1. How do we grow the pool of workers available; and,
2. How do we get more people in the pool of workers actually working.

Here are some of my thoughts on these 2 areas for consideration at the Jobs and Skills Summit.

2.0          Increase the Workforce Pool

The question here is how do we grow the pool of workers available for business owners.

Time and time again, I see reports asking for the Government to lift the migration cap.  To me this is very naive and I expect will likely achieve very little.

2.1          The “Brain Drain” is hurting business owners

If we look at the June 2022 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data on permanent and long-term arrivals and departures you will see that whilst June 2022 permanent and long-term arrivals are up 11% on June 2018, permanent and long-term departures are up 36% on June 2018.    The net adds of arrivals over departures in June 2022 is less than half of what is waw in June 2018.

What does this tell me?  We are starting to see a “brain drain” from Australia as people locked down over the past couple of years want to live and work in other parts of the world.  And who can blame them.

In respect of the “brain drain”, I am concerned we are already too late.

We can’t undo past lockdowns stopping Aussie workers leaving.  They are now “escaping” looking for other opportunities.  And if places like the UK are experiencing workers shortages, there is no end of opportunities for them to pack up and go.

We need ideas and ways to entice Australian trained skilled workers to stay on Australia.

2.2          Make Australia a place workers want to come and live in

We can’t undo past decisions to kick out non-resident workers.  These people have left and I doubt many would come back and risk suffering the same treatment.

But for others who did not suffer this traumatic experience, we need find ways to make Australia a place workers want to come to live in.

Just increasing the intake quota of foreigners is not enough.  What are we offering these new arrivals?

When my father and my in-laws arrived in Australia, they were placed in accommodation and provided assistance to settle and find places to live and work.  But where is this now?

And if places like the UK, New Zealand, Singapore and others, offer incentives to foreign workers, we need to match and even beat these.

The view of Australia being a great place to live has been sullied over the past couple of years and we need to find ways to both attract new workers and help these new arrivals settle and quickly enter the workforce.

2.3          Reduce the cost to business owners for visas for foreign workers

One of the ways to entice workers to come to Australia is to offer people permanent residency in conjunction with their job and employer.  But this can be an expensive exercise for a small business if they want to help the worker.

The last time I costed this for a business owner, it was going to cost them over $20,000 for their first employee under a Class 186 visa.  Of this over $15,000 was going to be paid to the government.

So one way to entice employers to bring in foreign workers with the offer of permanent residency would be to reduce the costs of such visas and / or remove any fringe benefits tax on this.  This is something simple and easy to do.

Interesting enough as part of this process the employer needs to pay the ENS Skilling Australia Fund (SAF) levy of either $3,000 or $5,000.  And this money is supposed to be used by the Government to grow the number of apprenticeships and traineeships in Australia.  Be interesting to see how these finds are actually used.

3.0          Get more people in the pool of workers actually working

In the July 2022 ABS jobs data, the job participation rate was 66.4% in total (70.2% for men and 62.2% for women).  And whilst this is near a record high, it still means that 33.6% of the working age population in Australia is not engaged in the workforce (either as already working or looking for work).

So one way to help ease the ease the pressure on Australian business is to identify ways to improve the participation rates in Australia.    In other words get more people working.

3.1          Women in the workforce

Women’s participation rate is less than 90% of men’s participation rate.  Putting it different way, if the female participation rate could be increased to the same as for males, that puts another 900,000 females in the workforce.

So the question is how can we do this?

3.1.1      Child Care

One of the biggest issues is the cost of child care.  From what I can see the average cost of child care per day in my suburb is $144.  This is about the same per day cost as sending your child to an average private high school.

Yes we can support parents by providing child care subsidies, but from what I can see, as you increase the subsidy, so does the cost from the provider so the parents remain out of pocket.

In my view one of the downsides of the current child care system is that they generally are early learning / education centres.  Whilst this is great in concept, it just adds costs. My daughter was involved in a child care centre for a while and she rarely did face to face time with the kids.  Instead she spend the bulk of her time ensuring compliance programs were being met, proper learning outcomes were being delivered and reporting on these learning outcomes.  That was a complete salary that some one had to pay for.

Why can’t we have a two tiered system.

One level is the existing early learning / education systems.

Another level is a basic child minding system which has a lower cost structure and focuses more on play and social interaction.  When I was a kid, people had access to child minding without having to go to one of a purpose built child care centres.

And at the same time lets also:

• Expand the before and after school care facilities in many schools to be available all day.
• Find ways to support other family members (such as grandparents) to provide care.

3.1.2      Flexible Work Practices

When I ran teams of people, I loved employing women with children on flexible working arrangements.

Sometimes it was part time a number of days a week.  Often it was part time with start after school drop off and finish before school pickup.  Others, like my daughter (who is a primary school teacher) are job shares with another employee.

These staff were always loyal as these sorts of options were few and far between and allowed the mother to balance her need for caring for her children with earning sufficient money to live and enjoy life.

Where is the support for this style of flexible working arrangements.  Today on Seek less than 1% of jobs listed in Sydney were for job share.

We need to better educate employers about the benefits of permanent part time work (especially for working mothers) so that they become more open to different ways to fill the worker shortfall.

3.2          Pensioners in the workforce

Right now there are likely to be many people on the pension who would be happy to work more.

But they are concerned that the loss of part of their pension or part of the medical benefits associated with the pension from working more.

So they take the “safe” option and don’t return to work.

We need the Federal Government to have a real look at what can be done to get more people on the pension who want to work to back into the workforce.

The other side of this is that we need better education for both employers and younger employees about the benefits the older generation can bring to the workforce.  The aim of this is to reduce the amount of age discrimination that has been occurring in many workplaces.

3.3          Improved Health

In June 2022, according to the ABS data, the number of employed people working fewer hours than usual due to their own illness or injury or sick leave was 80 per cent higher than June 2018.

Whilst covid isolation will be a factor in this, it still goes to show that having healthy workers is important to reduce the level of absenteeism in the workplace.

Over the past couple of years, we have seen in main stream and social media constant marketing about vaccines and now covid medicines.

But where has been the education and marketing about improving your health?  I would argue just about non-existent.

And we are seeing the impact of this now.

According to the ABS the number of deaths that occurred between 1 January and 31 May 2022 and registered by 31 July 2022, are 16.6% higher than the historical average.  Diabetes related deaths are 20% higher than the historical average.  This will be taking more people out of the workforce than in previous years.

And in another ABS report, over 8 million people have reported a long term health problem.

We need the government to start spending money to educate people about the benefits of a healthier lifestyle.  The benefits to the economy go much further than reduced absenteeism.  It will reduce the resources required in our health system and allow for productivity increases in the workplace itself.

3.4          Stop Pushing University

Right now our schools are geared to churn out young adults to go to university as the focus in the last year of school is a university entry score.  It has nothing to do with how to survive in the real world.

Employers are often requiring university degrees as a basic entry requirement.  Which I find astounding for many roles.  In my last year of full time university, I only had 12 hours a week of classes and only went 2 days a week.  The rest of the time I goofed off and had a good time.  Not sure what that taught about being an employee.

Going to university means many of our young adults start their working life with debt.  And some of them spend several years at university only to realise they are in the wrong vocation anyway.

So, do we really need this focus on university degrees?

What about all the jobs that are less academia and more hands on focus, such as trades?  They don’t need a university degree.  But the stigma associated without having a university degree is possibly stopping people from following this option.

We need a school system that allows people to focus on non-university based career paths and people not be stigmatised for taking this path.

We need employers to realistically look at the entry requirements for workers.  Don’t try and make your job sound better by setting unnecessary entry requirements, often of which cant be met.

Wayne Wanders is an experienced Business Advisor skilled in analysing business financial performance and cash flow.  Contact Wayne below for a free no obligation session.

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Business Survival Session

At the end of this session, you will have multiple ideas on how your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times.

Simply fill in the contact form below or email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052 to organise one of these obligation free sessions.

Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO

wayne@aRealCFO.com.au

The April 2021 Jobs Data released today is the first jobs data after the end of JobKeeper. 

At one level it looks like the end of JobKeeper did not have a big impact as the unemployment rate fell from 5.7% in March to 5.5% in April. 

But if you look behind the numbers you see a different story. 

Firstly, the number of employed people fell by nearly 31,000 between March and April.  Women suffered the worst here, with the number of employed women falling by over 36,000.    From a state perspective, the biggest job losses were in NSW which had nearly 37,000 less people working in April compared to March. 

Secondly, the total labour force fell by over 64,000 people between March and April.  This means that over 64,000 people stopped working, or stopped looking for work in April.  For people who were unemployed in March and stopped looking for work in April, they are no longer counted as unemployed. 

Thirdly, whilst the number of unemployed people of nearly 34,000 people in April, this can be reasonably attributed to less people looking for work and not actual job creation (especially as there are nearly 31,000 less people working in April).

My conclusion

I think the end of JobKeeper in March, has meant a lot of people gave up hope of getting work in April.

If you want a confidential discussion on your business situation, contact me below

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Business Survival Session

At the end of this session, you will have multiple ideas on how your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times.

Simply fill in the contact form below or email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052 to organise one of these obligation free sessions.

Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO

wayne@aRealCFO.com.au

Today I want give you another 2022 financial year Tax Planning tip and this is around Bad Debts.

Are you aware that you can only claim a tax deduction for bad debts once you formally write this off?

Say you have a customer who has not paid you and there is a real concern that they may not pay you in full.

You could raise a provision in your accounting records for this.  But that is not tax deductible.

Instead, you need to make a formal assessment that your recoverability is low and formally write off the debt you don’t expect to recover, on or prior to 30 June 2022.

And by doing this you may be also able to recover the GST on this debt (if you were on accruals basis for GST).

Now it is important to note that by you formally writing this off in your accounting records, it does not mean that you have to stop chasing the customer.  You can continue to do this and if you manage to get some money in the future, you recognise this as income when you collect this.

If you want a confidential discussion on your business situation, contact me below

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Business Survival Session

At the end of this session, you will have multiple ideas on how your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times.

Simply fill in the contact form below or email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052 to organise one of these obligation free sessions.

Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO

wayne@aRealCFO.com.au

Today I want give you a 2022 financial year Tax Planning tip.  And that is to pay to your super early, before 1 July 2022 if you can because superannuation payments are only tax deductible when paid

That’s why if you have the cash, pay your super early.

If you want a confidential discussion on your business situation, contact me below

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Business Survival Session

At the end of this session, you will have multiple ideas on how your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times.

Simply fill in the contact form below or email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052 to organise one of these obligation free sessions.

Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO

wayne@aRealCFO.com.au