What to give your accountant for your business tax return is worth getting clear on before tax time, whether you run a sole trader operation or a multi-entity business.
The quality of your records directly determines how smoothly, and how accurately, your tax return gets prepared. The businesses that come out of tax time with the best outcomes are not always the ones with the simplest affairs; they are the ones whose records are clean, complete and ready before the conversation starts.
Here’s what to have on hand. You can also refer to the ATO’s business record-keeping guidance, which outlines the records businesses should keep and why they matter.
Income records
A detailed profit and loss statement, with bank statements for all business accounts reconciled against the transactions recorded in your general ledger. Your accountant needs to be able to trace every figure in the return back to a document and a clear explanation of its purpose, and that starts with clean, reconciled books rather than a general ledger that’s drifted from your actual bank position over the course of the year.
Documentation of any non-operating income, such as one-off investment returns or government grants received during the year, helps explain unusual revenue spikes rather than leaving your accountant to guess, or worse, leaving the ATO to ask questions about an unexplained jump in income.
Payroll and superannuation
If you have employees, complete payroll records including payslips, total salary and wages paid, PAYG withholding amounts, and documented proof that superannuation contributions were made on time to compliant funds. Contributions are only deductible in the year they’re actually received by the fund, not the year they’re paid from your account, so making payments well before 30 June matters if you want the deduction to land in the current financial year.
This year carries extra weight given the shift to Payday Super from 1 July 2026, which changes the cadence of super payments going forward. If your payroll system isn’t already set up for that change, it’s worth raising with us now rather than discovering an issue in your first pay run under the new rules.
GST and BAS
All Business Activity Statements lodged during the financial year, along with the worksheets or reports used to calculate the GST collected and paid. This needs to reconcile cleanly with your income and expense records; discrepancies between BAS figures and the annual return are one of the more common issues that surface at tax time, and they’re far easier to resolve in April than they are after the return has already been lodged based on figures that don’t quite match.
Asset records
A complete fixed asset register showing every piece of equipment, vehicle, and technology the business owns, including purchase dates and costs. If your business has an aggregated annual turnover of less than $10 million, you can claim an immediate deduction for eligible depreciating assets costing less than $20,000, provided the asset was first used or installed ready for use within the financial year, and this limit applies per asset, not as a total cap, so multiple qualifying purchases in the same year can each be written off in full.
If you sold or disposed of any business assets during the year, bring the sale documentation, contract, settlement statement, and original purchase cost, so the capital gain or loss can be calculated correctly rather than estimated.
Loans and liabilities
Records of any new loan or hire purchase agreements entered into during the year, and final bank and loan statements as at 30 June. If you operate through a company and have shareholder loans, current documentation of those loan balances is essential, along with any Division 7A complying loan agreements, since unpaid or undocumented loans between a company and its shareholders can trigger deemed dividend treatment if they’re not properly managed.
Contractor payments
If your business makes payments to contractors in certain industries, including building and construction, cleaning, courier and road freight, IT, and security, you may need to lodge a Taxable Payments Annual Report, and your contractor payment records need to be in order by 30 June to lodge on time. If you’re unsure whether your industry falls into a TPAR-reportable category, this is worth confirming with us early rather than assuming it doesn’t apply.
Structural and entity-specific items
If you operate through a trust, current trustee resolutions and beneficiary distribution details for the year, documented before 30 June rather than decided informally and written up afterwards. If you operate through a company, franking account balances and details of any dividends declared during the year. If your business has grown significantly, taken on new partners, or you’ve been considering restructuring, raise this early in the conversation, since some structural changes can only take effect from the start of a new financial year and need genuine lead time to implement properly rather than being rushed through in the final weeks of June.
For larger or multi-entity businesses
If your business operates across multiple entities, a consolidated view of how income and expenses flow between them, including any related party transactions, management fees, or intercompany loans, makes a significant difference to how efficiently your return can be prepared, and to how confident we can be that the overall group position is being reported accurately rather than entity by entity in isolation.
Get in touch
If you’re not sure whether your records are complete, or you want to make tax time less painful this year, get in touch with our team before you start pulling everything together. We can help you work out what’s needed, what’s missing and what will make the biggest difference before your business tax return is prepared.
Your business tax return document checklist
Financial records
- Profit and Loss statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement
- Reconciled bank statements for all business accounts
- General ledger reconciled to bank position
- Documentation for any non-operating income or grants received
Payroll and superannuation
- Complete payroll records and payslips
- PAYG withholding summary
- Proof of superannuation payments and timing
- STP finalisation declaration status
- Confirmation of Payday Super readiness for the year ahead
GST and compliance
- All BAS lodged for the year, with supporting worksheets
- TPAR records, if applicable to your industry
- FBT return status, if fringe benefits were provided
Assets and liabilities
- Fixed asset register with purchase dates and costs
- Asset disposal documentation (sale price, original cost, dates)
- New loan or hire purchase agreements
- Final bank and loan statements as at 30 June
- Shareholder loan balances and Division 7A agreements, if applicable
Entity-specific
- Trustee resolutions and distribution details (trusts)
- Franking account balance and dividend records (companies)
- Related party transaction details (multi-entity groups)
Anything unusual this year
- Restructuring considered or undertaken
- Significant one-off transactions or asset sales
- New contracts, leases, or major capital expenditure