Are you looking for someone to be on your side?

Someone looking out for your interests, giving you straight advice.

Someone you can trust.

Someone who is an expert in their field.

Do you sometimes feel alone and confused by the myriad of laws that you have to deal with in your business and personal life?

Last weekend I went to a Ted Nicholas workshop and he made me realise that there are so many people who are really looking for someone to be on their side, someone they can trust, someone to look out for them.

I already knew this but he said it in such a passionate way that it moved me to share more of the knowledge and experience that I have gained over the last thirty years rather than just keeping it to myself and worried about what others might think.

Following is a quote from Ted Nicholas.”Your best business friend as an entrepreneur is an accountant well versed in the challenges faced by business owners”.

Hopefully this blog will be a way that you can get to know me, or if you know me already, get to know me better. Feel free to ask any questions or make comments so I can get to know you as well.

If you are in business I highly recommend visiting Ted’s website http://www.tednicholas.com

Regards,

Glenn Wallace
Business Adviser
Chartered Accountant
CPA
Australian Registered Tax Agent
Superannuation

These sort of letters have been around a long time.

They usually offer to buy your shares at around half the price of the marketvalue.

It’s worded so its legal.

If you are thinking of selling, first check the current price on the stock exchange. To do this type in the Share Code, (it will be on the letter) in the Get Price box on the right hand side of this page ttp://www.asx.com.au/professionals/market_information/index.htm and it will show how much you can sell it for, per share, on the stock market.

As the letter says whether you sell or buy you should seek financial advice. This is not financial advice, just a warning.

You can sell shares yourself online buy using sites like http://www.commsec.com.au. After you have opened an account you mat be able to just use your SRN number from your share dividend advice (its the long number after the letters SRN) to sell the shares.

Unfortunately it is probably unsuspecting people who could really do with the extra money that decide to act on these letters and they are the ones whose lives could really do with the possible extra 40% or so they could receive selling it themselves online or through a standard broker.

As the letter says seek financial advice.

Regards,

Glenn Wallace
Chartered Accountant, CPA, Registered Tax Agent

Apparently the Tax Office wants access to his banking records in the US because they believe he may owe millions of dollars in tax.

Its all a part of Operation Wickenby, reportedly the biggest Tax Hunt in Australia’s history. Glenn Wheatley was convicted as a result of Operation Wickenby.

60 Minutes asked Michael Inglis, a tax attorney, if Paul Hogan was wise to publicly “antagonise” the Tax Office. He said “If you are in the phone booth with a gorilla, you don’t poke him in the eye.”

When he was asked if he had paid all his taxes in Austrlia, Hogan said.”Yeah totally, more than I should have.”

60 Mnutes asked hin how much it is costing to fight the Tax Office. Hogan replied, something like a million dollars in legal fees.

He quoted Kerry Packer, “Pay your tax but dont tip em as they are not doing that good a job”

The quote I remember of Kerry Packer was when he was questioned in a senate inquiry, this is what I remembered, “Anyone who pays more tax than they legally have to is a mug.” I did a quick search and the ony reference I found described what he said as follows “Of course I am minimising my tax, and if anybody in this country doesn’t minimise their tax they want their heads read, because as a government, I can tell you, you’re not spending it that well that we should be donating extra.”

Here is a link to an article that talks about “In other words, in 2006 it is the super rich like Packer getting the welfare, and it’s the poor who are paying the price.”
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/the-taxing-art-of-bludging/2006/01/02/1136050387120.html

Here is a link to an article that has some moere detail.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23966375-601,00.html

There are many ways of minimising your tax, that is not paying in excess of what the law says, without involving the use of complex structures and hidden bank accounts in overseas tax havens. Not that I am implying this is the case here, just talking generally.

When I started the blog I used a new webhosting service (new to me anyway) but unfortunately it was down alot which meant the blog wasnt ranking well. I have now changed webhosting and the new service also includes technical assistance, which is great, which frees up my time.  Hopefully now the site will be live all the time and have regular updates.

Regards,

Glenn Wallace
Business Adviser
Chartered Accountant
CPA
Australian Registered Tax Agent
Superannuation

Buying a car or plant fior example you can claim a fair part of the purchase price before 30 June.

You need to ensure that the residual is acceptable by the Tax Office.

I wrote a post about this at a forum tonight and went back to add the comment about the  redsidul being acceptable by the tax office but  they had locked the forum. Remember with any general financial advice like you read in forums you are advised to seek a credible adviser before acting on any information.

Regards,

Glenn Wallace
Business Adviser
Chartered Accountant
CPA
Australian Registered Tax Agent
Superannuation

It was great. Room for improvement on my part but I was happy with how I went. When is the next one?
If you are reading this and you attended the seminar just send me an email and I will send you my powerpoint notes .

I mentioned how sad it was that the double tax deduction for laptops etc was gone afer the budget

On a happier note superannuation has become very attractive with the recent changes

Tax benefits putting money into super, tax benefits whilst its there and tax free after you start a pension and when it comes out (in most cases)

Also now super funds can borrow money and invest in property.

Regards,

Glenn Wallace
Business Adviser
Chartered Accountant
CPA
Australian Registered Tax Agent
Superannuation
Internet Adviser

You may have had some superannuation paid on your behalf on a previous job you had but you didn’t keep track of where it was paid and how much.

There is a simple way of checking if you have monies owed to you from funds that have reported your super payments as “lost contact”.

The link is at the ATO site
http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/33301.htm

A good discussion of lost super is found at the ASIC site
http://www.fido.asic.gov.au/fido/fido.nsf/byheadline/Searching+for+lost+super?openDocument

Hopefully you will have a windfall!

It used to be known as HECS ( Higher Education Contribution Scheme).

Generally speaking, HELP is similar to tax withheld on wages.

As with tax on wages it appears to be compulsory to withhold the amounts from the regular pays as opposed to paying it at the end of the year.

It’s a bit like asking to pay your income tax at the end of the year and not have the tax deducted every pay.

If your taxable income is going to be lower from a rental loss or some other deduction or you only worked part of the year(basically your taxable income is goingto be lower than if you received the current pay all year) then you could vary
your overall PAYGW obligations.

If the employee is paid in cash and other forms (eg reimbursement of expenses before tax) this is commonly referred to as salary packaging.

There are some ways that you can package a salary to reduce the FBT to nil.

For Example:

Superannuation

Pay the employees expenses directly only on items that are specifically exempt from FBT eg One laptop computer per year.

Payments that are otherwise deductible. In other words if the employee could have claimed a tax deduction in their personl tax return then there is no FBT if the employer pays for theses expenese instead.

Employee Contributions. The employee pays money to the employer to reduce to nil the employers liability to pay FBT. This is effective where the employees marginal tax rate is below the highest marginal rate.