Top 10 EOFY Strategies to discuss pre 30 June

Can you believe the end of financial year 2019/20 is almost upon us?

Amongst all the distraction and chaos we are simplifying everything this year with our top 10 strategies you may wish to discuss with your financial adviser or accountant before 30 June.

1. Top Up Your Super Contributions

2. Bring Forward Super Contributions

3. Make a Spouse Contribution

4. Get a Government Co-Contribution

5. Lodge Your Deduction Notice

6. Review Salary Sacrifice Arrangements

7. Pre-Pay Expenses & Crystallise Losses

8. Defer Income & Gains Until July

9. Gather Your Receipts

10. Meet Minimum Pension Standard

Maximising Super Contributions – Financial adviser

If you’re under 65 or otherwise eligible to contribute to super, you should think about maximising your contributions. However, there are limits on how much you can contribute – generally, up to $25,000 pa from ‘before tax’ money (e.g. employer and salary sacrifice contributions). We can discuss your assessable income, potential tax deductions associated with topping up your super and determine if this strategy suits your circumstances.

If your spouse isn’t earning much, you can consider giving their super a boost. If your spouse earns below $37,000 you might be able to claim a spouse contributions tax offset of up to $540 when you contribute $3,000 to their super.

While it’s generally too late to enter into a salary sacrifice arrangement for employment income earned in the current financial year, you should review your future arrangements for the coming 2020/2021 financial year to ensure they’re effective.

Bring Forward Expenses and Defer Income – Accountant

If you think you might earn less next year, you would generally want to think about bringing forward tax deductible expenses and deferring assessable income.

You can pre-pay up to 12 months of expenses such as interest on an investment loan. This applies to deductible work-related expenses like insurance premiums for income protection policies too. If you’re planning on buying a new work-related tool (e.g. adding to your professional library or tools of trade) it’s immediately deductible if it costs less than $300.

If you’ve realised a capital gain during the year, you might want to consider bringing forward the disposal of an asset carrying a capital loss to offset capital gains.

Deferring income can be problematic, but worth considering if you are certain that you’ll earn less next financial year.

Get your admin in order

It’s a good idea to start gathering your paperwork, including those pesky little donation and incidental receipts, so you’re ready to meet your accountant early in the new financial year.

What to do now?

Book your phone or video meeting with a financial adviser or accountant from The Hopkins Group. This week we can find out if any of the 10 strategies listed above might need further consideration in light of your personal circumstances.