Every Australian business and individual has recurring tax and compliance obligations. Income tax returns, FBT, sometimes TPAR, ASIC statements, superannuation. Missing a lodgement is expensive. Lodging something sloppy is worse.
Tax and compliance is the foundation every other service is built on. Get this right, and planning, advisory, and structuring all run smoother. Get it wrong, and everything downstream gets harder.
We handle compliance the way it should be handled. Carefully, on time, and without chasing you for information the week before it’s due. Your cycle is mapped at onboarding, your bookkeeper or in-house team keeps the ledger and the activity statements (we do not do bookkeeping or BAS, and we say so up front), and we review the file through the year rather than in a June scramble.
What’s included
A full compliance cycle, handled.
Done well, it is work you stop noticing.
Income tax returns
Company, trust, partnership, SMSF and individual returns prepared to a planned timetable, with deductions checked against the records and every position backed by working papers.
Free file review
Before anything else, we offer to look through the file, up to four years of records where it matters, for GST and fuel tax credits, tax positions worth checking, loan accounts and super. Free, in writing, with the scope agreed first. Often the reason people call us in the first place.
FBT returns
Where fringe benefits apply, we prepare and lodge your annual FBT return and help you structure benefits sensibly.
TPAR, ASIC and super
Taxable payments annual reports, ASIC annual reviews and company secretarial, and superannuation guarantee reviewed periodically against what was actually paid. The review is ours; the payment deadlines are yours and your payroll's, and they come first.
Working with your bookkeeper
We work alongside your bookkeeper or in-house team rather than replacing them: the ledger reviewed before year end, GST and payroll questions answered as they come up, and ATO correspondence managed on your behalf.
Year-end planning touch point
A pre-lodgement conversation before year end to confirm nothing has been missed and to align compliance with tax-planning opportunities.
Who it’s for
Businesses that want compliance done properly.
Growth-phase businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets and DIY lodgement, but aren’t being served well by a big firm that treats compliance as a commodity. Founders and professionals who want someone reliable on the back end, so they can stay focused on the business.
If you run a company, trust, partnership, or self-managed super fund, or simply want a partner-led accountant handling your annual return properly, this is where most engagements with us start.
How we approach it
Three-step cycle, repeated properly.
- 01
Map the cycle
At onboarding we document every recurring obligation. Income tax, FBT, TPAR, ASIC, superannuation, payroll tax where it applies. Each with its due date, lodgement channel, and who is responsible for it: you, your bookkeeper, or us.
- 02
Check the system
A health check of the accounting system before the first return: software setup, bank feeds, GST and payroll settings, how the activity statements are being prepared, and the controls around them. Fix the inputs once and every year after is cleaner.
- 03
Review, not re-key
With clean inputs, the work shifts from data entry to review, reconciliation, and judgment. That is where partner time is best spent, and where the value lives.
From our work
GST that had stopped adding up
Based on real jobs and typical situations. Names, figures and details changed.
The situation
A family business, run through more than one company, had bought most of its vehicles and equipment on finance. Activity statements had gone in on time every quarter, but the numbers had stopped making sense to the owners. The ATO balances didn't match what they thought they owed, interest kept appearing, and nobody could tell them why.
What we did
- Rebuilt the activity statements for the open periods against the ledger, the bank and the original invoices and finance contracts.
- Found GST credits on financed equipment that had never been claimed, charges between the related companies recorded differently on each side, and GST claimed in full on a vehicle that was also used privately.
- Prepared the corrections, each one tied to its source document, so every change could be explained if it was ever questioned.
- Set out, for each company, the original figure, the correction and the net effect, with a schedule showing when each company would owe or be owed money, so there would be no surprises at the bank.
- Prepared a request for the interest that had built up to be remitted.
Why it mattered
Not every correction went the owners' way, and the report said so. Taken together, though, the net position was clearly in their favour. More importantly, the directors understood their ATO accounts for the first time in years: which company owed what, which credits were safe to rely on, and what they needed to sign before anything was lodged.
Technical note
Equipment bought under a chattel mortgage, or under a hire purchase agreement entered into from July 2012, generally has the GST credit on the purchase price claimed up front rather than through the repayments, so claiming it on the repayments as well is a common double claim, and missing it altogether is a common under-claim. A missed credit can usually still be claimed within four years, provided the tax invoice is held. Charges between related companies need to be recorded the same way on both sides, and GST on vehicles with private use needs to be apportioned.
FAQ
Common questions.
If yours isn’t here, ask it on the first call. Thirty minutes, no fee.
Do you work with clients outside Queensland?
Yes. We are fully remote and service clients Australia-wide. All work is conducted under Australian law, and the ATO treats a remote tax agent exactly the same as a local one.
Do you do bookkeeping or BAS?
We don't do routine bookkeeping and we don't prepare or lodge activity statements; your bookkeeper or in-house team does, and we work alongside them. Historical corrections, where the review turns something up and you ask us to fix it, are a separate, separately scoped piece of work. We do advise on them: the GST treatment of an unusual transaction, a payroll question, whether a position on the last BAS holds. Most compliance problems start in the ledger, so that is where we look first, and the free file review is usually where they show up.
We're already with an accountant. How hard is it to switch?
Straightforward. We handle the transfer of tax agent authority, request prior-year workpapers from your current accountant, and take you through an onboarding call. Most clients are fully transitioned within a fortnight.
What accounting software do you support?
We are Xero-centric. If you aren't on Xero and want to move across, we can plan the migration with your bookkeeper. If you prefer to stay on another platform we can usually accommodate, though most of our efficiency comes from a well-configured Xero file.
How do you price compliance work?
Fixed monthly or annual fees based on scope, agreed in writing at onboarding. No surprise invoices, and no time-billing for a quick question.
Start a conversation
Tell us what you’re working on.
One call. Partner-led. No queue.
New here? Start with a free review of your file.