For Melbourne company directors
A company accountant who tells you the number before you spend it.
The expensive surprises inside a company almost never come from the tax rate. They come from what was taken out during the year and how it was recorded. I keep that straight as it happens, so the answer arrives while you can still do something about it.
Companies and trusts from $350/month. Fixed fee, agreed in writing, no lock-in.
- You take money out of the company and nobody has ever told you what that is, exactly.
- The director's loan account gets looked at once a year, if at all.
- ASIC sends you something annually and you are not sure what to do with it.
- You are no longer sure the company is earning its keep.
The three things that catch company owners out
None of these is exotic. All three are expensive precisely because they are boring.
Money out of the company is not your money
The company is a separate legal person. Cash you take out has to be a wage, a dividend, or a loan on proper written terms. Anything else and Division 7A can treat it as a dividend and tax it in your hands. It bites a year later, when the year it relates to is closed and the cheap fixes have gone.
The ASIC annual review fee is not my fee
Every company gets an annual statement from ASIC with an invoice attached. That charge is the government's, paid by your company directly to ASIC, and it has never been part of what you pay me. It also carries its own deadline, separate from anything to do with tax, which is how it quietly turns into a late fee.
Two sets of obligations, not one
The company lodges, and so do you. Wages, dividends and loan repayments all land in your own return, and the return people forget is usually theirs rather than the company's. Incorporating does not replace your personal tax position, it adds a second one that has to agree with the first.
What I actually do for a company
One fixed monthly fee, and the loan account is kept current rather than reconstructed in October.
- The company tax return and financial statements, prepared, checked and lodged by a CPA and Registered Tax Agent.
- BAS and IAS every quarter, with PAYG instalments watched and varied when the year is not going the way the ATO assumed.
- The director's loan account, kept current. Reviewed as the year goes, so a Division 7A problem is caught while it is still cheap to fix.
- Dividends and franking worked out before they are paid, not written up afterwards to explain a transfer that already happened.
- ASIC registers and changes, so the officeholders, addresses and share structure on the register match the company you actually run.
- The call before 30 June, while the number can still move. After 30 June I am reporting, not planning.
Bookkeeping and payroll sit outside the monthly fee and are quoted against your real transaction volume. Every fee is fixed and agreed in writing before any work starts, and it is itself deductible. Full detail on the pricing page.
Should you have a company at all?
Worth asking honestly, including if you already have one. A company is a tool. It is a very good tool for some jobs and an annual bill for nothing on others.
- The rate only helps on profit you leave in. A company pays 25% if it is a base rate entity and 30% if it is not, on every dollar of taxable income. That beats a high personal marginal rate only while the money stays in the company. Draw it all out to live on and it is taxed to you anyway, and you have bought an annual compliance bill for the privilege.
- Liability is often the real reason. If the work carries genuine risk, a company can be worth it whatever the tax says. That is a legal question as much as a tax one, and it is worth answering deliberately rather than assuming the structure protects more than it does.
- The lower rate has a test attached. A company is a base rate entity for 2025-26 if its aggregated turnover was under $50 million and no more than 80% of its income is passive income such as interest, rent, dividends and net capital gains. An investment company holding shares or a rental property can easily fail the second half of that test.
- Personal services income can follow you in. If the income is essentially your own skill and effort, the PSI rules can attribute the company's income straight back to you and the structure achieves very little. It is a set of tests applied to your actual working year, so it is worth testing rather than assuming.
The case for winding one up
Nobody else will say this to you, so I will. A company that earns one person's income, holds no assets and carries no real risk is often paying for structure it does not use: a second return, financial statements, an ASIC fee every year, and a loan account that has to be watched. If that is your company, closing it can be the right answer, and there is a proper way to do it that does not leave a tax bill behind. If it is not your company, you will know within one conversation, and you will know why.
Either way you get a decision rather than a hunch. If you are running it in your own name today, the sole trader page comes at the same question from the other side, and sole trader vs company works through the four factors in detail.
Companies I work with most
The compliance is the same everywhere. What changes is what the money is doing.
Already have an accountant?
There is one step I am not allowed to do for you. Since November 2023 the ATO requires you to nominate your own tax agent in Online Services for Business before that agent can act, and it takes about ten minutes. I send you the exact screens to click.
Everything else is mine. I send the professional clearance letter, request your prior returns, financial statements and depreciation schedules, and check every lodgement is up to date, including the ASIC side, which is the one that usually turns out to have been left behind. There is no charge from me for the handover and you can switch at any time of year. Your previous accountant may hold the clearance letter until any outstanding invoices are paid, so it is worth settling those first.
Company questions I get asked
Ongoing work for a company starts at $350 a month, which covers the company return and financial statements, the quarterly BAS and IAS, the lodgements and the questions in between. That is a starting point rather than your quote: the exact fee depends on how many bank accounts, employees and entities are in play, and you get it as one fixed number, in writing, before anything starts. Your own personal return, tax planning sessions and the ASIC annual statement are quoted separately.
Included: the company tax return, the financial statements, BAS and IAS, the lodgements, PAYG instalments watched and corrected, the director's loan account kept current through the year, and the ability to ring me without a clock starting. Not included: bookkeeping and payroll, which are quoted against your actual transaction volume, and ASIC's own annual review fee, which your company pays directly to ASIC and never appears on my invoice.
Your company is a separate legal person, so its money is not your money. If you take cash out and it is not a wage, not a dividend and not a loan on proper written terms, the tax law can treat it as a dividend and tax it in your hands, usually with no franking credit attached. That is Division 7A. The reason it hurts is timing: it is almost always found a year later, when the year it relates to is closed and the cheap fixes are gone. Keeping the loan account current as the year goes is the whole job.
When the point is flexibility about who receives the income, or when you expect to sell an asset at a gain. A company pays a flat rate on every dollar and cannot use the CGT discount at all. A trust decides each year who gets what, within the limits of its deed, and can use the discount. A company is usually better when profit stays in the business to fund it. Plenty of people end up with both, and there is a page on trusts if that is the direction you are heading.
It is common and it is fixable, and it is better handled by coming forward than by waiting to be chased. I get you current first, including the ASIC side, then move you onto the monthly arrangement so next year is one predictable amount rather than one painful bill. Bring whatever you have, even if it is incomplete. The reconstruction is my job, not yours.
- On time, every time. Every lodgement in on time, provided your records reach me by the date on your calendar.
- The price you agreed, and no other. Your fee is agreed in writing before any work starts, and it doesn't go up for 12 months.
- Never locked in. No fixed term. If it isn't working, end it with 30 days' notice and I'll hand your file to your next accountant promptly.
These promises are in addition to your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.
Ready to stop worrying about your tax and bookkeeping?
In a free 30-minute strategy session, I'll personally review your situation and we'll map out a clear plan together. If it feels like a good fit, I'll send you a straightforward, fixed-fee proposal. No pressure, no surprises.
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