A comprehensive overview of end-of-year tax planning opportunities for business owners, investors, and families — drawn from WLM Accounting's EOFY webinar with Amanda Rogers and Charley Tarchichi.
Tax planning is not just a once-a-year chore — it is an ongoing conversation between you and your accountant about the financial decisions shaping your life. Whether you are running a business, managing a family trust, growing your superannuation, or thinking about the next generation, there are real opportunities to reduce your tax burden legally and strategically — but only if you act before 30 June.
WLM Accounting's Amanda Rogers and Charley Tarchichi have worked together for over 12 years developing tax strategies for their clients. Their advice is clear: do not wait for your accountant to call you. If you are ready to plan, reach out now.
Here are the key areas to focus on this EOFY.
Ideally, your EOFY planning meeting should happen in late April or early May. This gives enough time to run scenarios, refine strategies, and implement decisions before the 30 June deadline. Your accountant will need an estimate of your business income and expenses to model where profits are likely to land, and from there you can work together on the best approach.
Several actions must be completed before 30 June and cannot be backdated, including:
Most business owners focus on the profit and loss, but the balance sheet is often where the real tax opportunities — and hidden traps — are found. A careful review can reveal:
Timing these items strategically — for example, deferring a debtor to a year with a lower tax rate — can make a meaningful difference to your overall tax outcome.
One of the most common tax traps for business owners involves drawings from a company. The ATO takes a strict view: money sitting inside a company belongs to the company, not to you personally. If you withdraw more than what has been properly declared as wages or dividends, you may have effectively created a loan from the company to yourself.
Under Division 7A, if this loan is not properly managed, it can result in a deemed unfranked dividend — meaning you pay full income tax with no credit for any tax the company has already paid. The current benchmark interest rate on these loans is 8.37% per annum.
The good news is there is a two-year window to resolve the situation: in the first year, an unpaid present entitlement (UPE) is created — not yet a loan. It only becomes a Division 7A loan in the second year, and repayment is not required until almost 12 months after that. This gives time to plan — but you must use it wisely.
Family trusts are a powerful tax planning tool, but they are often misunderstood — even by the people who have them.
A family trust allows profits to be distributed flexibly across family members and related entities, potentially lowering the overall tax rate by using lower-income beneficiaries' tax-free thresholds and marginal rates. It also offers asset protection and can be a useful estate planning tool.
Unlike a company — which can sit on profits indefinitely after paying company tax — a family trust must distribute all of its income each year. If it fails to make a valid distribution, the trust will be taxed at the top marginal rate of 47%. This is why the trust distribution minute must be prepared and signed before 30 June every year.
If you distribute income to beneficiaries — including adult children — the ATO expects the cash to actually flow to them. If a child is allocated income but the money effectively stays with the parents or goes to reduce a home loan, Section 100A may apply. To protect against this, WLM recommends preparing a beneficiary acknowledgement confirming how the entitlement has been met — whether through direct payment, covering education or living expenses, or other documented benefits.
A bucket company is a private company that acts as a beneficiary of your family trust. Rather than distributing all trust profits to individuals who may be paying 45–47% in marginal tax, some or all of the profit can be directed to the bucket company, which pays just 30% company tax.
This strategy works particularly well when you anticipate a lower-income year coming up — for example, retirement, extended leave, or a career break. When that year arrives, the bucket company can pay a franked dividend back to the individuals, and because the company has already paid tax, the shareholders receive a franking credit. In low-income years, this can result in a tax refund.
Bucket companies can also serve as a long-term investment vehicle, a source of Division 7A loans to adult children, and even an estate planning tool — though as Amanda notes, inheriting a bucket company does come with a future tax liability for the beneficiaries when they eventually draw the funds.
If your total superannuation balance is under $500,000 and you have not maximised your concessional contributions cap in recent years, you may be able to catch up by contributing more this year. The ATO's online portal shows exactly how much unused cap you have from the last five years. The current concessional cap is $30,000 per year.
If you are aged 60 or over and working no more than 10 hours per week, you may be eligible to start a full pension from your super fund. Once in pension mode, your fund pays zero tax on earnings — compared to 15% in accumulation phase. The maximum amount you can transfer into pension phase in 2025–26 is $2,000,000.
Div 296 was legislated in March and applies from 1 July 2027. It imposes an additional 15% tax on the earnings attributable to super balances above $3 million. If your balance is approaching this threshold, now is the time to model the impact and consider whether repositioning some assets — for example, into a bucket company — makes sense. In practice, for most people the dollar impact is modest until balances significantly exceed $3 million.
If you have a self-managed super fund in pension mode, you must withdraw your minimum required pension each year. Failure to do so means your fund loses its income tax exemption on the earnings supporting that pension — a costly mistake. Make sure this is reviewed before 30 June.
One of the most attractive current tax concessions for employees is the FBT exemption on electric vehicles under a novated lease. Unlike hybrid vehicles (which only attract a partial deduction), fully electric vehicles under a novated lease can deliver 100% pre-tax salary sacrifice treatment.
For business owners operating through a company, a chattel mortgage or hire purchase on an electric vehicle can similarly provide full deductibility. The novated lease structure is most suitable for employees or business partners who do not have direct ownership of the entity.
At a 39% tax rate, the effective annual cost difference between an EV on a novated lease versus a hybrid on a traditional arrangement is substantial — and even greater if you are on the 47% rate.
Tax planning time is also a good moment to pause and check that your estate planning is in order. A few important points to keep in mind:
The strategies above require time and preparation. Many of them — trust distributions, super contributions, prepayments — have hard 30 June deadlines that cannot be extended. The earlier you engage with your accountant, the more options you will have.