When you consider buying or starting a business, you put a lot of time and effort into making the right decisions to ensure your success. Additional areas you should consider along your journey is to visit a Tax Agent to understand what your tax and superannuation obligations will be.

Too many new business owners jump in with little or no knowledge about these very important compliance requirements. Twelve months later, or even longer down the track that they realise that they have failed to choose the right business structure and worse still, they didn’t budget in their tax obligations.  Why not start off well informed from day one to get your tax and record keeping obligations right from the beginning.

The ATO has some information to help get your business up and running.

Choosing the right business structure

One of the first decisions you need to make is the type of business structure you need. There are four common business structures in Australia, with different tax obligations, costs and legal implications:

• Sole trader: An individual running a business. As a sole trader, you’re the only owner and you control and manage the business. You can employ workers in your business, but you can’t employ yourself.

• Partnership: A group of people who carry on a business and distribute income or losses between themselves. The partners in a partnership are not employees, but the partnership can employ other workers.

• Company: A separate legal entity run by its directors, owned by its shareholders, and that can employ staff. A company has higher set-up and administration costs, and extra reporting requirements.

• Trust: An arrangement set up by a formal deed. A trustee is legally responsible for the trust’s operation. The trustee can be an individual or a company. If a trust employs people, the trustee will have employer obligations. Profits from the trust go to beneficiaries.

See this ATO Link for more details : Your business structure

You can change your business structure as your business changes.

If you’re unsure which structure to choose, you can talk to your tax, business or legal adviser.

Other languages 

Do you speak another language and still wish to access online information at your business obligations?

Here are some additional resources :

ATO Tax Talk

ATO tv for foreign languages

Glossary of common tax and superannuation terms

Amanda

Amanda Hoffmann is a registered BAS Agent No.18613005, Associate of Finance, Xero & Myob Certified Consultant, a Queensland’s Quickbooks Trainer and works with the ATO on their advisory boards.

She says she is more than just a bookkeeper with experience in real estate investing, social media, podcasting, public speaking and blogging.

Amanda would love to train you to use accounting software, if you need help fixing a messy account or general assistance with automating your administrative duties to save time and money.