Home/Who We Help/Business Owners & SMEs
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, documented so the commercial rationale is on the file from the outset
Common situations
When business owners come to us
- A sale is 12 months away and the structure is wrong. Twelve months is usually enough to fix it; three months usually is not.
- The loan account has grown quietly for years and the Division 7A options narrow once an assessment issues.
- A payroll tax investigation has started and contractor and grouping exposure runs across several years and entities at once.
- Finance or investors need clean tax and diligence exposes the same handful of issues every time.
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.
Related insights
Further reading
State taxes
Payroll tax and how wide the contractor provisions reach
SKG Cleaning [2026] NSWCA 122
A NSW Court of Appeal decision on the payroll tax employment agency provisions, how far they extend and where they stop.
Asset protection
Gift and loan back arrangements: benefits and traps
How gift and loan back arrangements work, what the courts have said about them and where they fail. Published note.
Have a matter you want a straight answer on?
Most engagements start with a short conversation about the issue and the exposure.