In addition to reducing your tax burden, we’ll share useful tips on how to make tax time even easier next year.

Know Your Deadlines

As the end of financial year approaches, it's worth double-checking the deadlines for your activity statements, super guarantee, income tax, and more. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) lists all due dates on its website, broken down by month or topic.

If you're unable to lodge or pay your tax return on time, the ATO encourages you to ring them as early as possible to discuss potential payment plans. A late tax return often comes with a penalty, however, so you should do your best to lodge it before the deadline.

Confirm Which Taxes You Have to Pay

The tax returns you'll be expected to lodge and pay depend on whether you're a sole trader, small business owner, and more. If you're not sure what you need to pay, ring the ATO or speak to an accountant.

In particular, make sure you know whether you need to lodge and/or pay individual income tax or company tax, capital gains tax, aggregated turnover, a taxable payment annual report, and fringe benefits tax.

You should also confirm which of your new business assets are entirely deductible and which ones need to be lodged as depreciation deductions. For example, new equipment over a certain value often needs to be registered as a depreciating asset rather than being written off entirely.

If relevant, you should also review the concessions for small business entities.

Review Your Paperwork

In the run-up to the end of the financial year, schedule time to check that your paperwork is up to date and that you're not missing any invoices. Your accounting software should make it easy to spot any issues, especially if it integrates with your NDIS software.

If you are missing invoices or receipts, chase them up straight away. The ATO allows you to claim deductions without receipts, but only up to $300 in total. You may be granted an exception in some circumstances, such as with lost or stolen records, but you'll still need to provide evidence.

Handle Outstanding Payments

Hopefully, you won’t have any bad debts. However, if you do have unpaid invoices, you should include them as tax deductions on your return.

While a tax deduction is a good thing, a paid invoice is even better. Companies will be reviewing their business expenses in the final months of the financial year. This could be a good time to follow up on debts. You could consider offering a small discount for payments that come through before the 30th of June.

Finalise Employee Super Contributions and Payment Summaries

As the financial year draws to a close, pay close attention to super contributions. If you're a sole trader, there are tax benefits for concessional contributions up to $27,500.

Alternatively, if you employ staff, you'll want to make sure your super payments have been processed. Remember, late payments are not tax deductible, so stay on top of your due dates.

You'll also need to provide your employees with their PAYG payment summaries. In most cases, you'll need to do this by the 14th of July.

Calculate Your Tax Deduction and Taxable Income

Finally, having determined the taxes you'll need to pay, organised your paperwork and resolved any outstanding payments, you're ready to begin calculating your taxable income along with an estimate of your company tax/income tax. This should be fairly simple assuming you're using accounting software.

Lodge Your Tax Return

You can lodge your taxes through a registered tax agent, standard business reporting-enabled software or, if you're a sole trader, myTax. You can also submit a paper return.

Set Up Good Systems for the New Financial Year

Tax season is easier when you’ve been keeping excellent records all year long. By setting up solid systems at the start of the new financial year, you'll make lodging your tax return a quicker and simpler process.

Your systems should ensure that you have up-to-date records of your income, debts, business expenses and other tax-deductible items, and more. And when tax time comes around the following year, you'll know exactly what you need to lodge and pay.

Good tax habits include:

• Having a well-organised document management system for invoices and deductions so that you can quickly look up details

• Using a single software solution that integrates your client funds management, NDIS service delivery record, time-keeping, expenses, and accounting to save you time and reduce the risk of an invoice being overlooked

• Paying by card to create a record in case you're unable to get a receipt from a supplier

• Speaking with an accountant, or checking the Australian Tax Office's website, at the start of the year to confirm which tax benefits you're eligible for

• Building tax return time into your calendar

Trying to manually prepare for the end of the financial year can be time-consuming and stressful, even if you start in July. But with the right software, you'll be able to automate your financial record-keeping so that you're always prepared for tax season.

ShiftCare's NDIS software takes care of the admin work so you can focus on building a thriving disability support services business. Rostering, NDIS invoicing, client onboarding: it can all be done in minutes. And with integrated accounting and electronic record-keeping for expenses, time-keeping, and service delivery, it helps you stay tax-ready all year round.

Simplify your NDIS business management by trying ShiftCare for free.