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Pty Ltd · Financial statements · Franking

Australian Company Tax Return Services

A company is a separate taxpayer, and the return only stands up if the financial statements underneath it are right. We prepare both, plus the compliance calendar that runs around them.

How it fits together

The return sits on top of the accounts

A company tax return is not a form filled in from memory. It is built from the year's financial statements: profit and loss, balance sheet, depreciation schedule, and the reconciliation that converts accounting profit into taxable income.

That reconciliation is where the real work happens. Non-deductible items, entertainment, the difference between accounting and tax depreciation, carried-forward losses, franking credits received and loans to directors all have to be treated correctly before the taxable income figure means anything at all.

Most small companies are base rate entities taxed at 25%, but eligibility depends on turnover and on how much of the income is passive. Getting that test wrong changes the tax rate, the franking rate on any dividend paid, and the credits your shareholders receive.

What we need

Records that let us prepare it properly

If your bookkeeping is current we can work straight from the ledger. If it is not, we bring it up to date first — the return is only as reliable as the accounts behind it.

  • Trial balance or ledger file

    A Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks file, or a trial balance from your bookkeeper, with the bank accounts reconciled to 30 June.

  • Loan and asset records

    Loan statements for interest and the Division 7A position, plus the asset register and any purchases that affect depreciation.

  • Director and shareholder transactions

    Drawings, loans to directors and private expenses paid by the company — these decide whether Division 7A applies and what has to be reported.

  • Prior year return and accounts

    So brought-forward losses, franking account balances and depreciation pools continue correctly instead of being rebuilt from scratch.

  • Registration details

    ACN, ABN, GST registration, payroll details and the current ASIC extract showing officeholders and issued shares.

Compliance calendar

What else falls due during the year

The return is one date; the obligations run all year. Quarterly PAYG instalments and BAS, single touch payroll and superannuation guarantee payments, fringe benefits tax if you provide benefits, and the ASIC annual review all sit on the same calendar.

Companies in the building, cleaning, courier, road freight, security, investigation, IT or government sectors also lodge a taxable payments annual report by 28 August for payments made to contractors.

We run the whole calendar as one list, so nothing depends on someone remembering a date. Where a deadline is going to be missed, you hear it from us before the ATO writes to you.

Questions

Company tax returns — frequently asked

Yes. A company's return is prepared from its financial statements, so they have to exist whether or not anyone outside the company reads them. Most small proprietary companies do not need an audited general purpose financial report — they use special purpose statements prepared for tax and internal use — but the statements themselves are unavoidable.

Need your company return prepared?

Start the online company onboarding, or send us an enquiry and we will confirm what the accounts need and quote a fixed fee for the return.