Rev Simon Rumble wrote: >Hi folks. > >I'm about to start contracting and it seems it's a lot more efficient to >have things wrapped into a company. I've been looking around and seeing >stuff about the "80/20 rule" and the like, which determines whether you >can apply company tax instead of personal income tax, and other stuff. > >So does anyone out there have any (IANAA) advice on such things? Any >recommendations of accountants to get advice from? Ideally accountants >who can deal with free-software ledger systems... > >Oh and yes, those of you wondering, I'm back in Sydney.
Do give a contrary point of view to a few others, I think doing the company typically _is_ worthwhile, overall. If you shop around for accountants and are willing to do most of the book-keeping stuff yourself, costs can be kept pretty modest in my experience - I pay < $1000 pa all up for accounting and company fees etc. On the benefits side you get limited liability protection, and if you do have multiple clients (or can stay on the right side of the ATO via the various 80/20 type tests) then you can retain earnings in the company taxed at 30% max. That's not as big a deal as it was before the last round of tax threshold changes, but it still can be useful, depending on how much money you make. As others have mentioned, super is an issue as well, but I actually like the control DIY-super allows, for all the costs and admin overheads. Lots of trade-offs, of course, but I'm very happy as a P/L. Cheers, Gavin -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
