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our accountant said the same.Either the accountant gave us wrong information or we misunderstood. Because last year he said if he delays is as long as he is allowed then we get extra time to pay. Clearly this is not the case. He did give us bad advice already in telling the wife when she was in business that she should create a company in order to save tax. What it did was cost us a lot because my income as a contractor didn't make any money after all my deductions. Wife will call them Wednesday to discuss it.
Either the accountant gave us wrong information or we misunderstood. Because last year he said if he delays is as long as he is allowed then we get extra time to pay. Clearly this is not the case. He did give us bad advice already in telling the wife when she was in business that she should create a company in order to save tax. What it did was cost us a lot because my income as a contractor didn't make any money after all my deductions. Wife will call them Wednesday to discuss it.
Yeah it was bad advice and I think we ended up paying more tax as a result. I don't know that for sure but last year's tax bill was ridiculous. This year is less than half but she lost the contract over a year ago and she made bugger all last financial year. I think he did us a disservice by giving us not enough information during the hour we sat with him. I don't know enough and the way he put it sounded great. This was until she got a massive tax bill. It was then he said "I thought you was going to be making a lot more money than you did" as in my side of the company, which had not turned a profit in probably 12 years I was operating after I took out all my expenses. Him being the professional o think should have asked more questions and explained things better. He was supposed to have closed the company last year, then we get an ASIC bill because he didn't close the company after all. He is supposed to be closing it this week. Been a ****-storm since we went to him. He was supposed to be good and came recommended. Hopefully after this last fiscal year we will be back on track, with the wife as a sole trader again and working part-time for an NGO.I’m not saying that this is the case in your circumstances, but your post does make me think of…
When I hear the term ‘save tax’, I take that as my cue to ask more questions. I have absolutely no doubt that the accountant, or whoever, can indeed save me tax. But the real question I usually want to know is ‘but will it save me money?’.
No point paying $1,000 to save $900 tax. All that does is put $1000 in to the accountant‘s pocket, and it deprives the government of $900 that could be going to public services and facilities. Hell, I wouldn’t even pay $800 to save $900 tax as, to me, it just over complicates things for too little benefit. Plus, as above, it would still deprives the government of money. I'd rather be contributing to the collective good of society than feathering the accountant’s nest.
As for paying more tax, it's been a joke since the GFC, both governments have wasted copious amounts of our taxes. Might as well not give them any more than you have too. They seem to like wasting it, and have plenty of excuses why they need to spend on this and that all while not spending enough on what needs more money. I'm only a tax payer though so obviously pretty ill-informed and really have no idea on why they spend the money the way they do?
I still don't think Labor should have sunk us into debt back in the GFC. I also don't think every Gov that followed should have wasted the billions they did.
I could be wrong but I can't help but think had we not done so many cash splashes over the last decade or two whether we'd be in a much better position and not owing a bucket load of money to whoever we owe it to.
In our case we paid more tax and more accountant fees. It was a bad decision to form a company. We then had yearly fees to ASIC on top. I wish we never went through with it.I don’t think of it as a case of ‘paying more tax’. To me, it’s often a case of paying ‘less tax’ but also paying the accountant for their fees and services.
It’s a bit like when the tax agents advertise that their fees are tax deductible. That is true, so we can reduce our tax by claiming their fees as a tax deduction, but we still have to pay the difference between their fee and the tax saved. A ‘deduction’ reduces our ‘taxable income’, it’s not the same as an ‘tax offset’ (which would cover the full cost).
And all along, the tax agent gets their fee 100% paid. They don’t miss out at all. We do, and the government does.