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Achieving Financial Security In Retirement… Is A Bucket Company The New SMSF?

Challenge

Many of our clients fit into a similar profile… Do any of these circumstances sound familiar?

The big 5-0 is either looming or just passed you.

You earn a mix of personal and business income.

Your business affairs are well managed however you pay less attention to your day-to-day living costs.

You are at the peak of your earning ability & have a good lifestyle but wonder where all the money actually goes. (Yet you aim for a higher standard of living, want your children to have a good education, want to live in a nicer home, love big annual holidays with family etc).

You are thinking more about your Superannuation (and other investments) and wonder if it will be enough to maintain the retirement lifestyle you desire.

Superannuation no longer has the allure if previously did, with:

– continual rule changes / limits on contributions;
– no scope for succession (it ceases when you die);
– an inability to access it ahead of retirement for personal use; and
– still years until you can access it.

You’re enjoying work, and aren’t sure what retirement looks like. Do you need to retire, or can your role adapt?

Solution

Like many of our clients, you might be realising it’s time for some changes. You too may have a busy personal and business life and are wondering where all the money goes each month.

There is a need for you to create the right circumstance now to ensure you are financially secure in the future (this doesn’t mean retired necessarily). Typically, you will need to be debt-free in retirement and will need investments both inside and outside of superannuation to fund a lifestyle similar to that which you are enjoying now.

With the help of an external bookkeeper, your personal income and expenditure can be put into an online accounting platform so you can start to:

analyse both money going in and out of personal accounts;
identify expenses that will reduce in the future (e.g personal insurance, education etc); and
look for areas of waste.

Outcome

By introducing a platform which allows you to focus also on personal expenses, you will be more able to reduce financial waste and channel the resultant savings into:

debt reduction;
distributions to bucket companies; and
superannuation contributions.

Where investments are made in either a superannuation or bucket company environment, this ensures more of your after-tax money is used for investment and debt reduction.
All of these improve your Net Wealth, ensuring you are on track to being financially secure in the future.

 

Exciting News – Nikki White

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Nikki White from Senior Manager to the position of Principal.

Nikki has almost 25 years experience in accounting and taxation, superannuation and business advisory. Nikki began working at Harris Black in 1998. After working for several years and becoming a member of the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, she left in 2001 to work in London for a year. Her experience in London included working with Credit Suisse First Boston. On returning to Australia, she worked briefly in Commerce prior to starting a family and again returning to Harris Black as a Manager.

Nikki has continued to work at Harris Black and has enjoyed maintaining great relationships with her clients. Nikki has worked with many Harris Black clients for over 20 years, and has a particular passion for working directly with them to ensure they achieve their short and long term goals.

She holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) QUT and is a member of the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. She completed a Diploma of Advanced Tax through the Tax Institute of Australia in 2012.

Outside of work, Nikki enjoys spending time with her husband and 3 active children and training and competing in triathlons.

Important Tax Dates

21 October 2019
Lodge and pay quarter 1, 2019–20 PAYG instalment activity statement for head companies of consolidated groups.
Lodge and pay September 2019 monthly business activity statement.

28 October 2019
Lodge and pay quarter 1, 2019–20 activity statement if lodging by paper. Pay quarter 1, 2019–20 instalment notice (form R, S, or T). Lodge the notice only if you vary the instalment amount.
Make super guarantee contributions for quarter 1, 2019–20 to funds by this date.

31 October 2019
Lodge tax returns for all entities if one or more prior year returns were outstanding as at 30 June 2019.

21 November 2019
Lodge and pay October 2019 monthly business activity statement.

25 November 2019
Lodge and pay quarter 1, 2019–20 activity statement if you lodge electronically.

CAANZ Achiever Programme 2019

As part of our commitment to Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ), Harris Black is proud to be involved in the CAANZ Achievers Programme. Organised yearly by CAANZ, the programme is designed to give Chartered Accountancy firms such as Harris Black access to some of the most exceptional graduates for employment consideration.

Successful graduates are offered paid work experience placement by firms such as Harris Black. The placement generally lasts for 3 weeks and gives university students valuable insight into the accounting and business advisory profession.

Photo: CAANZ Employment Evening 2019 | 13 March 2019 | Mercure Hotel Brisbane

ATO Watching For Undisclosed Foreign Income

The ATO has reminded Australians who receive any foreign income from investments, family members or working overseas to make sure they have reported it this tax time.

New international data-sharing agreements allow the ATO to track money across borders and identify people who aren’t meeting their obligations. Under the new Common Reporting Standard (CRS), the ATO has shared data on financial account information with over 65 tax jurisdictions across the globe. This includes information on account holders, balances, interest and dividend payments, proceeds from the sale of assets, and other income.

Fund Status Will Change If SMSF Annual Returns Are Late

From 1 October 2019, if an SMSF is more than two weeks overdue on any annual return lodgement due date and hasn’t requested a lodgement deferral, the ATO will change their status on Super Fund Lookup to ‘Regulation details removed’.

Having a status of ‘Regulation details removed’ means APRA funds won’t roll over any member benefits to the SMSF and employers won’t make any super guarantee (SG) contribution payments for members of the SMSF.

How can we help you?

Today’s financial environment demands a regular review of strategy and a focus on execution.