We don’t mean to frighten you or anything but… it’s the freaking end of the financial year. ALREADY. Before you go panic-calling accountants or tearing your office apart for your tax receipts, take a real deep breath and relax. The end of financial year doesn’t have to be ultra-stressful (OK, mildly stressful, at the most). To make it even less so, we’ve wrangled together a slew of business bits you should get in order as we whizz past July 1st. Godspeed, biz pals!

RECORDS AT THE READY Before anything else, the very first thing you should do as EOFY rolls around is simply get your shit together. Organising your business records before you even utter the word “tax” will set you up nicely for when you actually sit down and crunch the numbers. This might mean preparing a profit and loss statement to understand what your business’s income and costs were during the financial year, or working out the debtors that owe you money and the creditors that you owe money to. Plus, remember to organise records of any assets you’ve bought or sold throughout the year, and any spending you’ve made to improve them. Expert tip: digitise your documents and keep them all in one safe place that you (in future) can add to over the course of the year.

BAD DEBTS AND TAX DEDUCTIONS Next up, work out what you can claim – it might seem like a hassle, but it literally pays to take the time to do this. Check which relevant business costs you can claim as tax deductions to maximise your return and help you get your bucks back, and also remember to figure out if you’re eligible for any small-business tax concessions. It’s helpful at this point in the EOFY process to work out any bad debts or obsolete assets you can write off before June 30th, so you can claim a tax deduction. If you’re a sole trader, have a squiz at the ATO’s free record-keeping tool myDeductions – it’s an easy way to keep all your records out of your brain and in one digital place.

TAX TIME OK, now onto the big one. Once you’ve made sure that you meet all of your EOFY tax and reporting obligations (this way you can avoid penalties and ensure your biz runs smoothly), it’s time to get your tax sorted. Some things to check off as you’re doing this – depending on the kind of small biz you’re running – include doing a stocktake, finalising your PAYG payments, lodging fringe benefits tax (FBT) and goods and services tax (GST) returns, meeting your superannuation obligations, submitting an annual payroll tax return (only if you’re registered for payroll tax), lodging company financial reports with ASIC, and then – finally! – lodging your income tax return. If this all sounds a little too crazy for your level of tax expertise, consider chatting to a (registered) tax agent, a (free and confidential) financial counsellor, or booking an appointment in with a (free and confidential) small-biz tax clinic. Or, use the ATO’s tax help program.

A SUPER-GOOD TIME FOR SUPER If you’re a frequent Strictly Biz reader, you know we LOVE yapping on about superannuation. Why? Because for small-biz owners and sole traders, it’s often one of those cans that is kicked down the road until it’s too bloody late. (It’s an especially important issue for young women – nearly 50 per cent of Aussie women retire with half the amount of super that men do.) Tax time is the perfect time to have a li’l sit and think about how you want your super to look a year from now, and to contribute any returned money from your tax return straight into your superannuation. An easy way to grow your amount of returned tax is by making your PAYG payments larger throughout the year.

HAPPY NEW (FINANCIAL) YEAR Hurrah – you’ve made it! But remember: there’s no rest for the (small-biz-owning) wicked, and so before you jump right back into the action, set aside some time to review your previous year’s business performance and work out your ideal direction for the financial year ahead. Maybe this involves reviewing your business or marketing plan, or maybe it’s thinking about how you could improve your cash flow or business structure. Whatever biz plans, goals and strategies you set up for yourself now, future-you will be ever so grateful (and maybe even more successful). Good luck, biz chums!

*Quick financial disclaimer. The information above doesn’t constitute financial advice, and it doesn’t account for your specific circumstances or financial goals. Make sure you get some independent guidance from a professional you trust. 

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