Running a business through the end of a financial year is a different exercise from managing a personal tax position and not just because there are more moving parts. The decisions are more interconnected, the stakes of getting things wrong are higher and the window for acting on them is exactly the same as it is for everyone else. 30 June doesn’t negotiate.
For business owners operating through a company, a trust, a partnership, or some combination of all three, this period deserves structured attention rather than a rushed conversation with your accountant in the last week of June. Where multiple entities, multiple income streams, and several years of compounding decisions sit behind the year-end position, the difference between a well-considered review and a reactive one isn’t a few thousand dollars. It’s the kind of difference that shows up meaningfully in your wealth position over time.
Understand Your Position Before You Do Anything Else
What tends to cause problems at year end is deciding too quickly, before the full picture is clear. Without a consolidated view of where the business actually stands, it’s hard to judge what makes sense. That view needs to come first.
That means understanding likely taxable income across all entities, how revenue and expenses have tracked against expectations, whether there are any unusual items that have changed the shape of the year and what the interplay looks like between business income and the personal tax positions of the owners. Where a trust flows income to a company beneficiary, or to individual beneficiaries at different tax rates, the picture can be genuinely complex, and the optimal outcome often depends on decisions that need to be made before the year closes rather than explained after it does.
Company Tax: Rate, Timing, and the Decisions Still Available
For businesses operating through a company, the tax rate depends on whether you qualify as a base rate entity, which broadly means a company with an aggregated turnover below $50 million that derives no more than 80% of its income from passive sources. The ATO’s base rate entity guidance sets out the full eligibility conditions. Base rate entities are taxed at 25% rather than the standard 30% corporate rate, and confirming which rate applies is a foundational step before modelling any year-end decisions.
Within that framework, timing decisions still matter. Bringing forward deductible expenses before 30 June – capital equipment purchases, prepaid service contracts, or other costs planned for early next year – can reduce taxable income in the current year. The instant asset write-off rules have changed significantly over recent years, so this is an area where current advice is genuinely necessary.
Trust Structures: The Decisions That Cannot Wait
If your business operates through or alongside a discretionary trust, the trustee’s distribution resolution is one of the most consequential decisions of the financial year, with a hard deadline that cannot be worked around. The ATO’s guidance on trustee resolutions explains what a valid resolution requires and what happens when one isn’t made.
The resolution must be made before 30 June. If it isn’t, the ATO’s default provisions apply and those defaults are almost never the outcome a family group or business structure would have chosen if they’d engaged with the decision properly.
Beyond the mechanics, the substance matters enormously. Which beneficiaries should receive distributions this year, at what amounts, and why? The answer depends on the tax positions of each beneficiary, any Division 7A implications if a company is in the mix, and whether the prior year’s approach still makes sense given how this year has actually unfolded. Where the structure runs across several entities and beneficiaries, this is a conversation that needs to start now, not on 28 June.
Division 7A: The Area That Creates the Most Expensive Surprises
Division 7A is consistently one of the most misunderstood and most costly areas for private company owners. The rules are designed to prevent private company profits from being accessed by shareholders or their associates without those amounts being treated as taxable dividends. The ATO’s Division 7A guidance is comprehensive and worth reading if you’re uncertain whether any transactions this year are caught.
Before 30 June, it’s worth reviewing any amounts owed to your company by shareholders or related parties, confirming that complying loan agreements are in place where required, and ensuring that minimum yearly repayments have been made on any existing Division 7A loans. The cost of getting this wrong is one of the largest avoidable tax outcomes a private company owner can face, and almost all of it can be prevented with a careful review before the year closes.
Superannuation for Owners and Employees
Late super guarantee payments are not simply a penalty risk. They lose their tax deductibility entirely. The ATO’s superannuation guarantee charge guidance explains how the SGC is calculated and why it costs considerably more than simply paying on time. Confirming that super has been received by the relevant funds before 30 June, not merely processed or initiated, is one of the cleanest ways to protect the deductibility of a meaningful expense.
The second direction is personal. Owners who draw income through a structure that gives them access to concessional super contributions often have significant capacity to use superannuation as a tax planning tool that they leave entirely unused. If you’ve had a strong year and haven’t thought seriously about what can be put into super before 30 June, it’s worth doing that modelling now while the options are still real.
Trusts, Companies, and Distributable Surplus
For businesses that operate with a combination of a trading trust and a corporate beneficiary, or that have accumulated profits sitting in a company, the question of what to do with distributable surplus before year end is one that gets more complex the longer it’s left unexamined.
Retained earnings in a company can be franked and distributed to shareholders as dividends, but the timing, the franking account balance, and the tax positions of the shareholders all interact in ways that need to be properly modelled before a dividend is declared. Similarly, for trust structures with corporate beneficiaries, the interaction between trust distributions and Division 7A issues arising from unpaid present entitlements is a live question that needs to be resolved before the year closes.
Capital Gains in a Business Context
If you’ve sold a business asset this year – a property, goodwill, or the business itself – the question of whether the small business CGT concessions apply deserves careful analysis. The ATO’s small business CGT concessions page outlines the four concessions available and the eligibility conditions for each. The concessions can reduce or eliminate a capital gain entirely, but some conditions may require action before 30 June to be available.
Where assets have been disposed of through one entity but proceeds flow to another, or where the structure of the transaction affects which concession applies, the analysis is rarely something to leave until the return is being prepared. The work to confirm eligibility and apply the right concession needs to happen alongside the transaction itself, not after it.
Reviewing Business Debt and Interest Deductibility
Interest on borrowings used to generate business income is generally deductible, but where borrowing purposes have been mixed or where debt has been refinanced over the years without careful tracing, the clarity of that connection can erode over time. For partnerships and trusts in particular, where the allocation of debt and interest between different parties can become complicated, a periodic review prevents small issues from becoming larger ones.
Wages, Payroll, and the Records That Matter
Ensuring that wages and superannuation have been correctly reported through Single Touch Payroll is a foundational year-end task. The ATO’s Single Touch Payroll guidance explains the reporting obligations and what’s required at year-end finalisation.
Any year-end adjustments for bonuses, allowances, or termination payments need to be processed correctly before the payroll year closes, as errors create reconciliation issues that flow through into the business’s deductions and the personal positions of anyone receiving those payments.
Book a Tax Planning Meeting Now, Not in July
For a business with multiple entities, beneficiaries, and income streams, a year-end tax planning meeting isn’t optional. It’s the mechanism through which most of the strategies in this guide actually get implemented. The difference between that meeting happening in May or early June versus the last week of June is the difference between having time to act and having time only to confirm what you’ve already missed.
Some of the most consequential decisions – trust distribution resolutions, Division 7A compliance, superannuation contributions for the owner – have hard deadlines that don’t move. If your adviser isn’t already across your position for the year and working through these items with you, booking that conversation now is the single most valuable thing you can take from this guide.
Book a year-end tax planning meeting with Prime Partners.
Your Pre-30 June Checklist
Use this as a structured prompt for your year-end review with your adviser.
Position and Taxable Income
- Prepare a consolidated view of taxable income across all entities for the year
- Confirm whether your company qualifies as a base rate entity and the applicable tax rate
- Identify any unusual or one-off items that have materially changed the income profile for the year
- Model the interaction between business income and the personal tax position of the owners
Trust Distributions
- Confirm trustee distribution resolutions will be documented and signed before 30 June
- Review the tax positions of all potential beneficiaries to determine the optimal distribution strategy
- Assess any Division 7A implications where a company is a beneficiary and distributions may not be paid by year end
- Check whether prior year distribution assumptions still hold given how this year has unfolded
Division 7A
- Review all loans, payments, or forgiven debts between the company and shareholders or associates
- Confirm complying loan agreements are in place for any amounts that require them
- Verify that minimum yearly repayments have been made on existing Division 7A loans
- Identify any new arrangements this year that may give rise to Division 7A obligations
Superannuation
- Confirm super guarantee payments for all eligible employees have been made on time and to the correct funds
- Review the owner’s personal concessional contribution position against the $30,000 cap
- Assess whether carry-forward contributions are available and appropriate given this year’s income
- Ensure any personal super contributions are received by the fund before 30 June
Timing of Income and Expenses
- Identify deductible expenses that can be brought forward to reduce taxable income in the current year
- Review instant asset write-off eligibility and thresholds as they apply for this financial year
- Assess whether any revenue recognition can be legitimately deferred where timing is within your control
Capital Gains
- Review any business asset disposals during the year and assess eligibility for small business CGT concessions
- Model the combined impact of capital gains with other income across the group before finalising any transactions
- Identify unrealised losses that could be crystallised before 30 June to offset gains
Business Debt
- Review the structure and purpose of business borrowings to confirm interest deductibility is clearly supportable
- Check whether private and business use of any assets or borrowings has been properly apportioned
Payroll and Compliance
- Reconcile Single Touch Payroll reporting against actual wages and super paid during the year
- Process any year-end adjustments for bonuses, allowances, or termination payments
- Confirm employee records are accurate and complete ahead of payroll year-end finalisation
Frequently Asked Questions
This article is general in nature and does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Business structures and circumstances vary significantly and you should speak with a qualified adviser before making decisions based on your specific position.