Preparing your business to survive the stressful tax season

Even if you’ve generally settled into a fairly good rhythm with operating your business, it’s still stressful to think about the spectre of tax season rolling around. You might have a steady stream of sales and a good amount of revenue to fall back on, but it’s still scary to consider how your company’s tax burden might affect your finances moving forward.

For this reason, it’s always helpful to have a little bit of advice on preparing for tax season. What kind of preparation will you need to undertake? What strategies should you employ? How can you get help if you need it? With any luck, this guide should help you navigate the 2025–26 financial year tax season with confidence.

Paying close attention to every little detail

When tax season rolls around, your business has to be extra meticulous to make sure you cover every single detail of record-keeping. According to the Queensland Government business and industry portal, this means compiling all sorts of financial data – receipts for materials you’ve bought, invoices for sales you’ve made and so on, with many businesses now using cloud accounting platforms such as Xero or MYOB to maintain accurate, real-time records.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) also provides the primary guidance on national record-keeping and reporting requirements, making it essential to ensure your systems align with current standards.

Perhaps most importantly, you need accurate payroll tax data. Today, most Australian businesses report payroll information in real time through Single Touch Payroll Phase 2, rather than relying on year-end record reviews. This process should include reviewing your employees’ work records and ensuring that you report the correct hours, wages, benefits, employment statuses, and similar items. Even a small slip-up now with any of the above could lead to significant regulatory issues later.

Planning effectively to minimise your burden

When it’s time to do your company’s taxes, there are some creative strategies you can use to minimise your burden this year. The ATO notes that it’s perfectly allowable to make changes to the accounts where you store money or to the timing of certain transactions to change how your income is taxed.

You might benefit from strategies such as prepaying expenses or making concessional superannuation contributions, where appropriate.

There’s a fine line, however, between adjusting your tax prep strategies and committing tax avoidance outright. If you’re unsure of the difference, it might be wise to speak with a tax accountant who can help explain it.

One commonly used approach is taking advantage of the Instant Asset Write-Off, which currently allows eligible businesses to immediately deduct assets costing up to $20,000 before 30 June.

Getting the guidance you need to survive the 2025–26 financial year

Are you, or anyone at your company, feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of tackling the 2025–26 financial year tax season? If so, you might be better off working with adept chartered accountants than going it alone. At Wilson Porter, we have a team of taxation experts who can help you find the strategies you need to succeed.

Whether you’re working on income tax, land tax, payroll tax returns or anything else, we can lend insights that will help. Talk to us today about your tax concerns, and we’ll do what we can.