As the end of the financial year looms, chartered accountant GAIL FREEMAN shares some of her tips to help you maximise your financial position.

It’s always a good idea to take stock of your finances before the financial year ends on June 30.

Here are some of my tips to help you maximise your financial position:

Ensure that any personal superannuation contributions you make, are received by your fund before the cut-off date which could be as early as June 20. I suggest you contact your fund to confirm the cut-off date.

If you make a tax-deductible contribution, you need to complete a “notice of intent to claim a superannuation deduction” form which is available either from your fund or from the ATO.

So you can claim the deduction, you must also receive a written acknowledgement from your superannuation fund.

The rules are slightly different if you contribute to your self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF). This year the maximum contribution that can be made between both you and your employer is $30,000. From July 1 this increases to $32,500.

You may be able to prepay some bills before June 30. It is possible to prepay 12 months of expenses such as income protection, subscriptions, union dues or investment property related expenses such as interest.

If you are planning to make tax-deductible donations made to a deductable gift recipient, these need to be received by the charities before June 30. For substantiation purposes, you need receipts.

Just a reminder that if you are claiming work from home expenses, telephone or data make sure that you have appropriate substantiation, which means you must have diary records or similar.

If you have made some capital gains during the year, check the rest of your share portfolio in case you have some losses that you could realise. Offsetting these losses will reduce the total amount of capital gains tax payable.

If you have shares that are no longer quoted and you want to write the loss off against your capital gains, you can only do this if you have a letter from the liquidator confirming that the loss can be written off.

If you are running a business and need new or replacement equipment, such as computer systems or ride-on mowers, you can get a full deduction for the cost if you purchase these items and they are installed ready for use before June 30. They must cost less than $20,000 in total. This is an excellent way to reduce your tax in the current year.

If you have any bad debts, you need to write them off before June 30. If you are running a company, you also need a minute of the directors dated before June 30 recording the write-off of the debt.

As a small business person, because of the change to payday super, which I have written about previously, it can be helpful to pay your superannuation before June 30 so that you get a tax deduction for it in this financial year.

We see a few clients who have invested in crypto and forget to tell us about it. Crypto disposals do need to be included in your tax return. The easiest way to do this is to get a statement from the crypto currency exchange. The ATO generally receives details of crypto transactions so they know about these investments.

If you need assistance with making deductions this financial year, or any other tax or superannuation related matter contact the experts at Gail Freeman & Co Pty Ltd on 02 6295 2844, email [email protected] or visit gailfreeman.com.au

Disclaimer
This column contains general advice, please do not rely on it. If you require specific advice on this topic please contact Gail Freeman or your professional adviser. Authorised Representative of Lifespan Financial Planning Pty Ltd AFS Lic No. 229892.

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