Choosing the right accountant
Carl and Michelle operate a successful construction company, based in the outer suburbs of Brisbane. When they first started the business they decided to use an accountant who operated close to their office as it seemed like the logical thing to do.
As the business grew, they continued to work with their local accountant due to a sense of loyalty. However after four or five years of running their business they began to realise the accounting services they were receiving were not up to scratch and they needed to make a change given their tax returns and Business Activity Statement were consistently late, and their accountant struggled to keep on top of his workload due to the many clients he was servicing.
Despite the lack of timely accurate financial reporting, the business was profitable and the owners were looking to invest outside of their trading business. After countless unanswered calls to the accountant for advice about which entity to invest in and how they should structure things, Carl and Michelle made their own decisions about how to do this.
As you might expect, this did not necessarily achieve the best tax or asset protection outcome they were looking for.
Finding q4 financial
At dinner with friends who are clients of q4 financial, Carl and Michelle were complaining about the level of service they were receiving from their current accountants, and so the connection was made. It was apparent when meeting with Carl and Michelle that they made a great team to run their business, however they needed to get their books in order, so they remained compliant and in good standing with all regulatory bodies.
First order of business
Our first job was to review what had been completed and lodged on their behalf over the last couple of years and to get them up to date from a tax and compliance perspective, with the view to being able to make better decisions about how to mange their affairs going forward.
This review was time consuming and revealed many errors in what had been lodged, which had resulted in Carl and Michelle paying far too much income tax and GST.
With a number of revised lodgements, we were able to get all of the overpaid tax refunded, which far outweighed the additional cost of our review. We then set about getting their annual lodgements completed in a timely manner so that Carl and Michelle could feel much more in control of their financial affairs.
This also meant that when it came time to acquire another investment we were able to make quick decisions about the best entity for their purchase and also secure the appropriate bank finance easily.
With Carl and Michelle’s business continuing to go from strength to strength, q4 financial supports them by keeping them up to date with the timely and accurate lodgement of all required returns.
