For Melbourne trustees
The trust job that has to be finished before 30 June, not after.
Most tax work can be fixed later. The trustee resolution cannot, because it is a decision rather than a calculation, and a decision cannot be backdated. That single deadline is why trust work runs on my calendar in May, not in the following October.
Trusts and companies from $350/month. Fixed fee, agreed in writing, no lock-in.
- You are not certain a resolution was signed last year, or by whom.
- Beneficiaries were distributed to on paper and nothing moved in the bank.
- Nobody has read the deed since the day it was signed.
- The trust return and the beneficiaries' returns never quite line up.
The three things that catch trust owners out
A trust is not harder than a company. It is less forgiving.
The resolution has a hard deadline
The trustee decides who is presently entitled to the income for the year, in writing, before 30 June. It is the one piece of trust compliance that cannot be repaired afterwards. Miss it and the deed decides for you, and the deed's default is rarely the answer you would have chosen.
A distribution on paper is not a distribution in the bank
Income can be distributed to a beneficiary who is then taxed on it while the cash never leaves the trust. That balance is an unpaid present entitlement, and it accumulates quietly year after year until somebody wants their money or the arrangement gets looked at. It is also where section 100A lives, so it is worth being deliberate rather than habitual.
The deed decides, not the accountant
What can be streamed, who counts as a beneficiary, what happens if nothing is resolved: the deed sets all of it, and no amount of good intention overrides it. Most deeds get read once, on the day they are signed, and then not again until there is a problem. Reading it properly is a one-off job that pays for itself the first time it matters.
What I actually do for a trust
One fixed monthly fee, and the resolution lands in your inbox in May rather than in a panic on the 29th.
- The trust tax return and financial statements, prepared, checked and lodged by a CPA and Registered Tax Agent.
- The trustee resolution drafted and signed before 30 June, off a diarised reminder, with the numbers behind it worked out rather than guessed.
- Distribution statements for every beneficiary, so each of them can lodge from a document instead of an email that says "roughly this".
- Beneficiary returns kept in step, so the trust's numbers and the individual returns agree, which is what stops the ATO asking the question in the first place.
- The deed read once, properly, and a plain-English note of what it actually permits, kept on file for next year.
- BAS and IAS every quarter, with PAYG instalments watched and varied when the year is not going the way the ATO assumed.
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.
Is a trust right for you?
Often not, and I would rather say so early than set one up and bill you for it every year. A trust carries one more moving part than a company: a distribution decision that has to be made every single year, on time, inside whatever the deed allows. It earns that overhead only when there is genuinely something to distribute or something to protect.
- Something to distribute. The whole point is choosing who receives the income each year. If there is one adult in the picture and no realistic alternative recipient, the flexibility is theoretical and you are paying for an option you will never exercise.
- Something to sell. A trust can use the CGT discount and a company cannot, so a structure holding an asset you expect to sell at a gain is a real argument for a trust over a company. That is worth modelling before the asset goes in, not after.
- Something to protect. Separating who controls an asset from who owns it is a legal question first and a tax question second, and it is worth answering with your solicitor rather than assuming a structure does more than it does.
- Somebody to run it. A trust needs a trustee who will actually sign something in June. If that has not happened reliably in the past, the structure is generating risk rather than reducing it, and simplifying is a legitimate answer.
Timing matters more than usual on the sale question right now: the way capital gains are taxed changes for CGT events from 1 July 2027, so which side of that date a sale falls on can change the answer. If you are holding an asset in a trust and thinking about selling, that is a conversation to have deliberately rather than by default. If you are weighing a trust against a company, the company page covers the other side.
Trusts I work with most
Family trusts running a business
Trading income, employees, a BAS every quarter, and a distribution decision at the end of it. The work is a business's work plus the resolution, and the resolution is the part that gets left until it is too late.
Family trusts holding property
Rent, interest, depreciation and one day a sale. Land tax and the eventual capital gain both behave differently inside a trust, which is exactly why the structure was chosen and exactly why it needs checking before anything is sold.
Unit trusts between unrelated parties
Fixed entitlements, unit holders who are not family, and a much lower tolerance for vagueness. Everyone needs the same numbers at the same time, and the unit register has to say what everybody believes it says.
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 and request your prior returns, financial statements and depreciation schedules, and for a trust I ask for two more things: the deed with every variation, and the signed resolutions for the last few years. Those two are the documents most likely to be missing, and finding that out at handover is far better than finding it out in June.
Trust questions I get asked
Ongoing work for a trust starts at $350 a month, which covers the trust return and financial statements, the quarterly BAS and IAS, the trustee resolution drafted in time to be signed, the distribution statements and the lodgements. That is a starting point rather than your quote, and the exact fee depends on how many beneficiaries and entities are in play. You get it as one fixed number, in writing, before anything starts. Beneficiaries' own returns are quoted separately.
Included: the trust tax return and financial statements, BAS and IAS, the resolution prepared and put in front of you before 30 June, distribution statements for every beneficiary, the deed read properly once rather than assumed, and the ability to ring me without a clock starting. Not included: bookkeeping and payroll, which are quoted against your actual transaction volume, and each beneficiary's own tax return, which is quoted on its own facts.
It is the trustee's written decision about who is presently entitled to the trust's income for the year, and it has to be made before 30 June. Almost everything else in tax can be corrected afterwards with an amendment. This one cannot, because it is a decision, and a decision cannot be backdated. Get it right in June and the year works. Miss it and you are dealing with whatever the deed says happens by default, which is usually worse and is occasionally much worse.
First, I read the deed, because the deed decides what happens when no valid resolution was made. Some deeds default to a named beneficiary, some accumulate the income in the trust, and the outcomes are very different. Then I work out the actual position for the year and what it means for each beneficiary, and I tell you plainly which of those you are in. It is not a disaster you can talk your way out of, but it is a known situation with a known process, and next year gets a calendar entry in May.
They solve different problems. A company is simpler to run and better when profit stays in the business to fund it: it pays a flat rate on every dollar and cannot use the CGT discount at all. A trust is more work every year and better when the point is flexibility about who receives the income, or when you expect to sell an asset at a gain, because a trust can use the CGT discount and a company cannot. The wrong answer for both is picking one at a barbecue. There is a page on companies if that is the direction you are leaning.
- 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.
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