Every successful business starts with a strategic plan. A strategy is simply a plan designed to achieve a long term goal. In business it’s your blue print for the future and your benchmark to determine if you’re on track or if you need to tweak things a bit to get better results.

With the end of the tax year on the horizon and the May budget likely to bring further changes in tax legislation, the team at Wilson Teis decided it was time for a refresher on some of this year’s changes, as well as some key areas that taxpayers need to be on top of by the end of this financial year on 30 June 2016 (FY2016).

If you own a rental property or you rent out all or part of your home then chances are you’ll be liable for Capital Gains Tax (CGT) or Income Tax and possibly both.

So here’s a quick reminder of some of the key issues you need to consider and few tips on the best timing for your year-end cash flow.

‘Begin with the end in mind’, might not be the first thing you thought when you set up your new business, but according to the Exit Planning Institute it should be at the top of the list for all new business start-ups.

Even if it wasn’t on your to-do list when you started out, it’s never too late to start succession planning and there are steps established businesses can take to secure the continuity, growth, and maximum value of their business at any stage in its lifecycle.

The way SMSFs fund their property investments has come under scrutiny in recent months following the conclusions of the recent Financial System Inquiry (FSI) led by former Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief executive David Murray which urged the government to stop SMSFs using limited recourse loans.

The Queensland property market is on the rebound after an increase in auction clearance rates in the first quarter of 2015. Despite the headlines, Queensland prices have often lagged behind those of our southern neighbours, but growth is on the horizon.

So now is a good time to find out how you can build your future by making smarter investments in property.

96 percent of Australia's businesses are small businesses, with over 280,000 new businesses started in 2013-14 alone. The ATO commonly defines small business as those with an aggregate annual sales of less than $2m. Small businesses make a large contribution to the economy.

So it's no surprise that many of the measures in the 2015 Federal budget are relevant for small business.

You may want to wait until your company is generating $1 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).

What's so special about the million-dollar mark?

The million-dollar mark is a tipping point at which the number of buyers interested in acquiring your business goes up dramatically. The more interested buyers you have, the better multiple of earnings you will command.

Pulling together a set of financial statements at the end of the year can feel like an administrative chore for a lot of businesses. While regularly preparing and reviewing those reports can save you a lot of time and effort come tax time, more importantly it will help your management team make better business decisions throughout the year.

And there are three reports that successful businesses pay close and regular attention to.

The Research & Development (R&D) Tax Incentive is a targeted, generous and easy to access entitlement program that helps businesses offset some of the costs of doing R&D.

The program aims to help more businesses do R&D and innovate. It is a broad-based entitlement program. This means that it is open to firms of all sizes in all sectors who are conducting eligible R&D.

It is expected the ATO will commence assessing tax compliance for professional firms using the new guidelines from the 2014/2015 financial year.

 Are you affected?

1. Not knowing the cash flow situation
2. Not saving expense receipts
3. Not taking inventory of stock
4. Not staying on top of receivables
5. Not hiring a professional to handle tax

Many Australian SMEs are not yet taking advantage of cloud computing. The benefits of cloud accounting remain as strong as ever for SMEs.

Tame your email inbox.

Filter your incoming emails to folders and flag important emails for urgent tasks. Sync your calendar and tasks to cloud management tools you use. And create rules for spam email.

As the ATO tightens its focus on SMSF compliance, it’s certain there will be more SMSF audits in the near future.