Obviously no one likes paying tax

You might not be able to avoid paying it, but you can minimise how much tax you have to pay.  Australia's tax system is very complex, but the tax laws do allow you to structure your affairs in a way that minimises the amount of tax you pay.

Some of the ways to reduce your liability include: 

• Contribute to super – make salary sacrifice contributions to superannuation and reduce your tax.
 
• Get more from your bonus – salary sacrifice your bonus to superannuation rather than receive it as cash.
• Make tax deductible super contributions – if you are self employed, invest in super and claim your contributions as a tax deduction.
 
• Boost your partner’s superannuation and reduce your tax – if your spouse earns less than $13,800 pa, make an after tax super contribution and receive a tax offset up to $540.
 
• Use super to manage CGT – if you are self-employed invest the sale proceeds in super and claim a portion as a tax deduction.
 
• Pay less tax on super benefits – delay the withdrawal until you are over age 60 and save lump sum tax.
 
• Gain from a capital loss – trigger a capital loss by selling a poorly performing investment that no longer suits your circumstances and use the capital loss to offset taxable capital gains.
 
• Defer asset sales to save tax –  defer the sale of an asset until a future financial year to defer or reduce your CGT liability.
 
• Pre- pay income protection premiums – pre-pay 12 months income protection insurance premiums and bring forward your tax deduction.
 
• Pre-pay investment loan interest – pre-pay 12 months interest on your investment loan and bring forward your tax deduction.

It is important to have a strategy to pay the least amount of tax possible so you can spend your money on things that you really want to do instead of paying tax. This is where Will Fraser & Co can help you – call us today on (07) 3284 7752.