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Who We Help
For business owners and SMEs
Division 7A, restructures, payroll tax on contractors, and getting the structure right before you sell.
Owner-managed businesses accumulate tax problems in a predictable order. Money comes out of the company informally. The trust distributes to a company that never gets paid. Contractors are engaged the way the industry engages them. Then a sale, a finance application or an ATO review forces all of it to be dealt with at once.
None of these are exotic problems. They are the standard problems, and they are all easier to fix before there is a deadline attached.
What we help with
The work
- Division 7A: loan accounts, complying loan agreements, deemed dividends and remedial options
- Trust distributions to corporate beneficiaries and unpaid present entitlements
- Restructures, including the small business restructure rollover and Division 122 rollovers
- Small business CGT concessions on a sale — tested properly, before the contract
- Sale of business and share sales: structuring, warranties and the tax deed
- Payroll tax on contractors, employment agency arrangements and grouping
- Superannuation guarantee and worker classification exposure
- GST on business and property transactions
- ATO audits, objections, penalties and payment arrangements
- Asset protection and holding structures that survive scrutiny
Common situations
Common situations
A sale is 12 months away and the structure is wrong
Twelve months is usually enough time to fix it. Three months usually is not, and eleventh-hour restructures attract attention.
The loan account has grown quietly for years
Division 7A exposure compounds. Dealing with it early gives you options that disappear once an assessment issues.
A payroll tax investigation has started
Contractor and grouping exposure typically runs across several years and several entities at once, so the assessed amount is rarely small.
Finance or investors need clean tax
Diligence exposes the same handful of issues every time. Fixing them before the process starts is cheaper than negotiating an indemnity about them.
How we work
How it works
Commercial, not academic. Advice comes with a recommendation and the risks attached to it, not a list of options with no view.
Phased fees. A preliminary review first, so you know the size of the problem before committing to the full piece of work.
Alongside your accountant. We do not replace your accountant and we do not do compliance work.
Common questions
Can Division 7A problems be fixed after the event?
Sometimes. There are remedial options, including complying loan agreements put in place before the lodgment day and, in limited circumstances, the Commissioner’s discretion to disregard a deemed dividend where it resulted from an honest mistake or inadvertent omission. The options narrow considerably once an amended assessment has issued, so it is worth dealing with early.
When should I get advice on selling my business?
Ideally at least a year out. The concessions available on exit depend on facts fixed well before the sale — who owns what, for how long, and whether the assets were active. There is very little that can be done about those facts in the last few months.
Related insights
Further reading
Division 7A
Bendel is decided. Now mind the window
The High Court has held an unpaid present entitlement is not a Division 7A loan. What it means, what must be unwound, and why 1 July 2028 changes things.
Trusts
Section 100A: when trust distributions come undone
How section 100A applies to trust distributions, what the ordinary family or commercial dealing exclusion requires, and what Guardian and BBlood decided.
Have a matter you want a straight answer on?
Most engagements start with a short conversation about the issue, what the exposure looks like and what it would cost to deal with it properly. There is no charge for that conversation.