Walker Hill’s Tax Time Cheat Sheet
Its that time of year, so Walker Hill have collated a cheat sheet with key dates to refer to and some important updates for business clients. If you have any questions about your business or personal tax, don’t hesitate to reach out to Walker Hill.
Important Dates
| Business structure | Declare | Due date |
| Sole trader (can be known as an individual in business or working for yourself) | Your business income in your individual tax return. | 31 October unless you lodge through Walker Hill |
| Partnership | Your share of the partnership income in your individual tax return. The partnership itself will also need to lodge a partnership return. | Both returns are due by 31 October unless you lodge through Walker Hill |
| Company | Any salary or wages you receive, including payments such as director’s fees or income from dividends, in your ITR. The company will also have to lodge a company tax return. | If you don’t lodge through Walker Hill/ a registered tax agent – Individual tax returns are due by 31 October – Company tax returns are generally due by 28 February each year. |
| End-of-year finalisation through STP | Single Touch Payroll reporting EOFY lodgement | 14 July each year.If you do not finalise by this date, you should do this as soon as possible to ensure your employees can access their information to complete their income tax return. If you have 20 or more employees, you should be reporting “closely held” payees each pay day along with “arms-length” employees. The finalisation due date for closely held payees is 30 September each year. For small employers (19 or fewer employees) with closely held payees, the due date for end-of-year STP finalisation will be the payee’s income tax return due date. For an employer with a mixture of both closely held payees and arms-length employees, the due date for end-of-year STP finalisation for closely held payees is 30 September each year. All other employees are due 14 July each year. |
Business Tax Updates
| Backing business investment | For 2019–20 and 2020–21, eligible businesses can deduct the cost of eligible new depreciating assets at an accelerated rate using the Backing business investment – accelerated depreciation rules. If you are eligible for Backing business investment – accelerated depreciation, you can choose to not apply these rules on an asset-by-asset basis but your choice cannot be changed once made. If you are a small business that chooses to use the simplified depreciation rules, you cannot opt out of Backing business investment – accelerated depreciation. |
| Enhanced instant asset write-off | If a depreciating asset is not eligible for temporary full expensing or if you opt out of temporary full expensing, the enhanced instant asset write-off rules continue to apply to eligible businesses and eligible assets. |
| Small business entities using the simplified depreciation rules | The instant asset write-off changes also apply to small businesses using simplified depreciation. For a small business entity which chose to use simplified depreciation, the temporary full expensing rules with some modifications apply. If instant asset write-off and temporary full expensing do not apply to an asset of a small business using simplified depreciation, the backing business investment rules may apply to the asset. If backing business investment rules do apply to the asset of a small business using simplified. |
| Increasing the small business turnover threshold for certain concessions from $10m to $50m. | For small businesses with an aggregated turnover of less than $50 million, newly eligible businesses can immediately deduct (from 1 July 2020): – certain start-up expenses – for example, professional expenses and legal and accounting advice – certain prepaid expenditure where the payment covers a period of 12 months or less that ends in the next income year. |
| Change in tax rate for base rate entities | The corporate tax rate for base rate entities for 2020–21 has reduced to 26%. |
| Merging super funds | The temporary tax relief for merging super funds is now permanent. subject to certain conditions: – transfer revenue and capital losses – defer tax consequences on gains and losses from revenue and capital assets. From 1 July 2020 the temporary tax relief for merging super funds was made permanent. |
Please note- is just a snapshot of business tax important dates and updates this season. For extra dates and details, head to the ATO website. Walker Hill can also help answer any questions you might have, or head to for extra dates and details.
