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Question
1: |
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The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website
allows me to set up my own Australian Business Number. Why do I need to
see an Accountant about this when it will cost me money for the advice? |
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Answer: |
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Sure, you can do this,
but what you may not be aware of is all the different business structures
you can have for that ABN, i.e. sole trader, partnership, family trust,
company. The ATO will not assist you with this decision. You need advice
from a qualified person to have the type of structure tailored to your
personal and family needs. It is complex, but a similar issue to building
a house. If you are not careful on the slab, the whole house above it
is at risk. Be careful of this most important step as the work involved
in unravelling your mistake will be costly.
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Question
2: |
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My software program produces financial reports,
so why do I have to pay an Accountant to do them for me? |
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Answer: |
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The usual bookkeeping
software on the market produces reports that are fairly basic. We need
to get these figures from you and make certain adjustments on our more
sophisticated accounting software and present them in a better format.
For example, with equipment purchases we need to “depreciate”
the cost over the estimated life of the asset. For loans from banks, we
have to break up the principal component from the interest component,
and so on. The end reports we produce will be vastly different from your
own reports. Ours will be supplemented with explanatory notes as well.
The banks and financiers also do not take much regard of clients’
internally produced figures and always need 'Accountant prepared' reports
as they conform with recognised Australian Accounting Standards.
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Question
3: |
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Your website doesn’t have any information
for us to make our own decisions on various issues. Why not? |
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Answer: |
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This is deliberately done
as it is possible that the information could be misinterpreted. Tax is
complex and overlaps into other areas. Take the simple issue of buying
a car. A client may wish to finance a car and may want a “link”
to our financier to handle it himself. The client may then have gone straight
to the dealer and bought a car in their company name. However, was the
client sure that this should be in his company name or his own name? What
is best? There are vast ongoing cost differences depending on what decision
is made for a company owned vehicle or a personally owned vehicle. This
client really needed advice here and that is one example of why we don’t
encourage you to make your own decisions with regard to tax or other financial
matters.
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Question
4: |
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What is the point of seeing you prior to year
end for Tax Planning – are there really enough issues that make
this worthwhile?
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Answer: |
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It is probably the most
important meeting of the year! We have seen some sad cases with clients
who didn’t come to see us prior to year end despite us prompting
them. There are things that must be done before year end, e.g. super payments,
ensuring all staff bonuses are done and taken up as wages and the tax
and super allowed for, prepayments dealt with, and the list goes on. Your
computer generated figures will simply not give you the true figures as
to your expected financial results for the year, so you cannot rely on
this. We have a pretty good idea, in advance of the end of the year, as
to what the year-end adjustments are and can estimate your year end results
for you. This enables you to make effective tax planning decisions and
shouldn’t create any nasty surprises down the track.
Remember, it is too late once the financial year ends to go back and try
to fix things up.
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Question
5: |
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Why do you recommend that your firm complete Business
Activity Statements (BAS) for us?
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Answer: |
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There are 3 answers to
this:
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We will prepare it correctly;
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We will advise you how to correct
your computer records with any adjustments we make;
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In the course of reviewing your
transactions over the past GST period, we can see if you need help
in any other areas, e.g. declining profitability, insolvency issues,
large tax bill looming etc.
We also then have your records on our computer up
to date and can discuss these with you at anytime.
Your BAS also usually includes instalments of income
tax for the current year - if you wish to reduce this, you need to estimate
taxable income for the ensuing year – a difficult task. With our
help and knowledge of your business, we can make a reasonable estimate
of this and reduce the tax accordingly and keep monitoring it throughout
the year. You are really not in a position, with respect, to estimate
your taxable income for the year ahead.
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Question
6: |
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I’m not so good with figures and bookkeeping.
What are my options?
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Answer: |
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We try to encourage clients,
with us training you in MYOB, to do their own books. This keeps you in
control of figures and puts security of money totally in your hands. If
this still daunts you to do this, you will need a local bookkeeper to
do books for you – someone trained in MYOB. We can help you locate
a suitable bookkeeper. However, it often works with most of our clients,
that we simply refer one of our MYOB trainers to train you to be able
to do it yourself - you need a bit of patience but you will feel better
keeping your figures under your control – trust us!
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Question
7: |
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How long do you need my books for to prepare my year end
work?
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Answer: |
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This depends on whether you have supplied
all the information we need. We do not start a client’s work until
we have all this information. From that date forward, it is 3-4 weeks
in the busy season. If you require work to be done earlier for a genuine
reason, we will always accommodate your needs.
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Question
8: |
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If I have an issue to discuss, who do I speak to and when
will you reply?
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Answer: |
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Best, if it is reasonably
technical, to send an email with the facts. The principal will get back
to you on the day with answers. If it is highly technical requiring research,
we will advise you how we intend to handle it and a time frame. If we
need to refer it on e.g. legal issues, we will discuss that with you first.
Reasonably straight forward queries can be handled immediately on the
phone direct to our office administrator – she will direct the call
to whoever is best to handle your query, usually the accountant allocated
to your affairs.
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Question
9: |
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How do you charge? |
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Answer: |
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We charge hourly rates
based on time spent. We find this the most fair way rather than fixing
a cost in advance. We find in 99% of cases that excess time is caused
by either the complex structure set up (for valid reasons), the state
of the client’s bookkeeping, inadequate or incorrect information
given to us, constant chasing for queries or delays in response by clients.
On the other hand, where we have complete co-operation by the client and
few queries, the fees are very reasonable. It is really in your hands
how co-operative you want to be in order to keep costs reasonable. We
can meet and discuss the likely range of costs for different services
you need.
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Question
10: |
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I am interested in your firm as a new client
- how do I go about making a decision to go to you? |
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Answer: |
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This is a difficult decision
for a prospective client and we respect that you are making a long term
decision. However, we are a very well experienced firm in taxation, accounting
and business advisory services. To make your decision, we suggest that
you review this website, see if our relatively small personalised service
approach suits you, ring to discuss with the Principal over the telephone,
and if still interested, make an initial appointment to discuss your needs.
This is at no cost if you are still deciding whether to proceed. The charges
only commence when we start giving you detailed advice or provide services
for you. We recognise that it is vital for both Accountant and client
to be comfortable with each other as the relationship is so important
to both parties.
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Question
11: |
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I don’t really understand all the reports you send
me – why do you do this? |
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Answer: |
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The financial reports
are set out under Australian Accounting Standards and are designed by
Accountants – these types of reports are similar for all businesses
making it “easier” for people like financiers/banks to readily
understand the layout and know what to look for.
We try to decipher the jargon in our annual covering letter to you on
the Financials so that you can understand what it all means. So you need
to read this separate report along with the financial reports to understand
your results for the year.
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Question
12: |
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How do you keep up to date and how do I know I am getting
the right advice? |
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Answer: |
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All of the professional
staff regularly attends professional seminars to keep up to date. We have
an immense library of articles, notes, manuals and other reference material
to research any complex questions, as they arise. If we recognise that
the issue is beyond us, e.g. a legal matter, we will refer you to an appropriate
colleague in that area. 95% of the issues typically raised can be resolved
here in the office.
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Question
13: |
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Will there be any forms or checklists that
you send to me to complete to assist you when preparing my tax work? |
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Answer: |
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It is very easy to overlook
an important issue on taxation so we have checklists to cover each area,
e.g. Tax, Business Activity Statements, Fringe Benefits Tax etc. There
are many tax incentives such as rebates, family allowances, all of which
require us to question you about. Many of the questions may not be applicable
but too many questions are better than too few. It is a proven system
of ours and ensures you are getting the best tax result you can achieve.
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