Tax time tips for small business

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is helping small businesses get it right this tax time.

Assistant Commissioner Mathew Umina says that “Small businesses in Australia contribute more than $380 billion to the economy each year and are an essential driver of economic growth.

That is why the ATO is committed to supporting small businesses and making it as easy as possible for them to understand and meet their tax obligations at tax time”.

Mr Umina has some tips to help small business in the lead up to and during tax time: Get your records ready A way to have a stress-free tax time is to keep up-to-date records.

Keeping good records will help small businesses to complete and lodge their tax returns, manage cash flow, meet their tax obligations and understand how their business is doing.

“Small businesses need to keep records explaining all transactions that relate to their tax affairs containing enough information to calculate the income, expense and other amounts that must be reported in tax returns,” Mr Umina said.

For more information on what records are needed for tax returns visit ato.gov.au/taxreturnrecords or use the record keeping evaluation tool to evaluate how well a small business is keeping business records. Consider small business concessions A range of tax concessions could help at tax time. For example, simplified trading stock rules means if the estimate of the difference between opening and closing trading stock is $5,000 or less, the small business doesn't need to do a stocktake.

“There are also concessions that allow new small businesses to claim an immediate deduction for start-up costs like professional, legal and accounting advice,” Mr Umina said.

Small businesses who use simplified depreciation rules can take advantage of the $20,000 instant asset write-off.

Remember, to be able to write off the business portion in a 2018 tax return the small business has to buy and install assets that cost less than $20,000 by 30 June 2018.

Check out ato.gov.au/concessionsataglance to see what small businesses can access according to their turnover.

Visit ato.gov.au/businessdeductions to find out more about what can be claimed.

*These tax tips are for guidance only. For specific advice taking into account your personal circumstances please contact your tax professional.