Small businesses are the engine room of our economy. They are the home of Australian enterprise and opportunity and are where many big ideas begin. The Federal Government’s 2016 budget announced that it will reduce the tax burden and increase access to concessions for small businesses.

Small business entity turnover threshold

From 1 July 2016, the small business entity turnover threshold increased from $2 million to $10 million. The current $2 million turnover threshold will be retained for access to the small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions.

Lower Taxes

The Government has further backed small businesses by reducing their tax rate to 27.5%, starting with businesses with a turnover of less than $10 million from 2016-17 income year. The Government will progressively decrease the tax rate for all companies to a flat 25% by 2026-27.

As many small businesses are not companies, the Government will also extend the unincorporated tax discount to unincorporated businesses with annual turnover of less than $5 million and increased the discount to 8% from 1 July last year, up to a maximum value of $1,000. After this initial increase, the discount will be increased in phases to a final rate of 16% in 2026-27.

Over 3 million businesses have accessed either the lower tax rate or higher discounts during 2016-17.

Expanding access to small business tax concessions

By increasing the small business entity turnover threshold to $10 million, the Government will provide over 90,000 businesses with access to a range of small business tax concessions. From July 2016, all small businesses with annual turnover of less than $10 million will have access to:

Instant asset write-off – simplified depreciation rules.

• Small businesses can immediately deduct the business portion of most assets if they cost less than $20,000 until 30 June 2017.

Deductions for professional expenses for start-ups

• Small businesses are entitled to certain deductions when starting up (i.e. professional legal and accounting advice and government fees and charges).

Small business restructure rollover

• From July 2016, small businesses can change the legal structure of their business without incurring any income tax liability when active assets are transferred by one entity to another. This rollover applies to active assets that are CGT assets, trading stock, revenue assets and depreciating assets used, or held ready for use, in the course of carrying on a business.

Lower taxes and expanded access to tax concessions will mean increased opportunity to grow a small business, employ more Australians and increase wages.

The announced changes present good opportunities for businesses and individuals to save on tax. If you think you may be eligible and want to take advantage of some of the new measures introduced, please contact our office to speak to one of our business consultants.

This article is for general advice purposes only. It has not taken into account your personal circumstances or financial goals. If you wish to get more personalised advice tailored to your circumstances and financial objectives, please contact our friendly staff today.

Many small business owners rent their premises and pay rent to a landlord.

However, since 1998 self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF) have been permitted to invest in business real property, and since 2008, they’ve been able to borrow money to do so.

Many small business owners don’t like paying rent, and if they could, would much prefer to buy their business premises and pay it off.

Assets they may have built up in their superannuation accounts can now be used to help fund the purchase of their business property. However, this would need to be structured through a self-managed superannuation fund.

And if you need to borrow funds to purchase the property in your SMSF, the 9.5% compulsory super you pay yourself as an employee together with the rent your business pays your SMSF can help pay it off.

At retirement you’ll have additional options. For example, you could sell your business but your SMSF could retain the business premises, continuing to collect rent from the new business owner. The rent could be tax free provided you’re over age 60.

Alternatively, if you retire after the age of 60 your SMSF could sell the business property free of capital gains tax.

While the strategy holds lots of appeal, there are many issues to consider, particularly in terms of ensuring that the arrangement makes sense and is properly structured. It’s definitely something worth seeking professional advice on.

If you are a small business owner or know someone who is currently renting their business space, contact us today toll free on 1800 679 000 for our Rockhampton office and 1800 804 431 for our Melbourne office.  We would be delighted to speak with you about self-managed super funds.

The information provided in this article is general advice only. It is prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on the advice in this article, please consider the appropriateness of the advice, whether the advice is appropriate to you, your objectives, financial situation and/or needs, before following this advice.

Finding it hard to manage your business’s finances? Unsure of how to price your products or services? Don’t know how much you can afford to spend on wages and expenses? Want to gain an accurate value of your business? Sounds like you need a financial model.

All business operators are concerned with the profitability of their business, but it is difficult to gain an accurate grasp of its real financial position purely from monitoring bank balances and receipts. So often is the case that business owners in successful times lose incentive to monitor their financial position. This can come back to haunt management once times start to become gloomy as they ponder “How did this happen?” “What were we doing right before?”. As silly as it sounds, sometimes an Excel spreadsheet can answer all of these questions (and more!).

Financial models are a key element in most major business decisions. A financial model is prepared whenever any organisation is considering project finance, bidding for a project, evaluating acquisition targets, carrying out monthly financial planning and budgeting, conducting capital structure studies, or just to monitor the business’s profitability.  Accurate financial models are also a staple requirement if you are trying to source financing from investors or lending entities.

They are useful tools that allow business options and risks to be evaluated in a cost-effective manner against a range of assumptions, identify optimal solutions in evaluating financial returns and understand the impact of resource constraints to make the most effective business decisions. A truly effective financial model is one that dynamically updates as the economic and business climate changes.

Our Consulting team has extensive experience in developing financial models which draw from historical performance and management’s expectations for the future. Once a tailored financial model has been created, sensitivity tests are run to generate accurate forecasts and budgets to allow management to determine how they should operate in the future. From here, we can provide recommendations on other business functions.

Businesses from agriculture, engineering, finance, heavy machinery and retail industries have approached us to construct conservative financial models that enable business owners to “hope for the best, but plan for the worst”. In 2016 we had the pleasure of constructing a dynamic model for a grain and oilseed farm in NSW. The original need for the model was to gain a value of the enterprise for the purpose negotiations and restructuring. However, as new problems were encountered, such as restricted access to financing, falling crop prices and even flooding, management quickly realised the true power of a financial model: it’s a tool that provides insight into how to develop clear contingency plans. Similarly, a sports store facing a severe cash flow crisis was able to trade their way out and re-finance through using our no-nonsense approach and financial modelling.

If you or anyone you know owns a business that needs to review their financials to take their business to the next level or faces increasing uncertainty, then now is the time to deal with it. Contact us today, toll free on 1800 679 000 for our Rockhampton office and 1800 804 431 for our Melbourne office to have a free initial consultation.

The information provided in this article is general advice only. It is prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on the advice in this article, please consider the appropriateness of the advice, whether the advice is appropriate to you, your objectives, financial situation and/or needs, before following this advice.