OUR FIRM OFFERS THE FOLLOWING SERVICES

For the majority of people mention the word 'Accountant' and your eyes glaze over as you think of boring, uninspiring, cardigan wearing people without personality that come to life only at tax time.

At AV Chartered Accountants we employ a mix of young and dynamic staff that embrace technological change with older experienced staff with a wealth of knowledge and client service. We invest heavily in the training of our staff at all levels to ensure that the delivery of our services and advice is always up to date and tailored to meet your ongoing needs as a client. We pride ourselves in being responsive and proactive in a world where change appears to be the only constant.

We offer many services, some obvious, and some that you may not be aware form part of our skill set. They all serve to ensure your business success.

Business Structures

We provide ongoing advice in respect of our clients optimum tax structures. This includes advice on corporate structures, asset protection through the legitimate use of trusts and retirement planning through the use of superannuation funds. We also advise clients on the role of being a director, the obligations, responsibilities and fiduciary duties outlined in the Corporations Law.

Taxation

We advise clients on many matters relating to taxation. Each year we prepare and lodge income tax returns for individuals, trusts, partnerships, companies and superannuation funds. We also provide ongoing advice to our clients on capital gains tax (CGT), fringe benefits tax (FBT), the goods and services tax (GST) and the pay as you go (PAYG) rules. We aim to create tax strategies for our clients to legitimately minimise their taxes and meet their objectives. We also manage any and all enquiries from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on your behalf to ensure minimal disruption to you and your staff and to ensure peace of mind. Sadly the ATO are now contacting clients direct more and more, and bypassing the accountant and this is one area we manage.

Superannuation

We are specialists in the area of self managed superannuation funds (SMSF's). We provide a comprehensive service over the entire life span of the SMSF from the initial setup through the Accumulation phase of the Fund to the final pension phase, to the wind up. We oversee all of the regulatory requirements and ensure ongoing compliance with the applicable Government Agencies again to ensure peace of mind.

However, we are not Financial Planners. Should you require Financial Planning Advice we have a network of planners that we deal with on an ongoing basis and we are happy to recommend a referral.

State Taxes

We also advise clients in relation to the three main state taxes being payroll tax, land tax and stamp duties. Payroll Tax is levied on a state by state basis and our knowledge and understanding expands to the grouping provisions across all states.

Land Tax is levied once the value of land held reaches a threshold set each year by the office of state revenues and we advise on a number of exemptions that may be available to you.

We also oversee share transfers where we calculate the stamp duty payable oversee the stamping of certain documents with the Office of State Revenue.

Benchmarking & Analysis of Financial Statements

As part of the quality control procedures of our firm, we analyse the financial statements of clients on an ongoing basis to identify areas of risk and concern. The ATO has used benchmarking to identify taxpayers who operate outside of normal industry practices. We risk manage your file to ensure that you meet the ATO benchmarks, and where we feel you are operating outside those norms, we will endeavour to flag the problem areas with you before lodgement.

We also periodically benchmark our clients results against industry standards and advise clients for areas of improvement. Through the use of specialised software we can track how your business is performing compared to others in the same industry of the similar size. In our experience, we have found this to be a useful tool to track business performance.

Corporate Compliance

We oversee and prepare many corporate compliance matters on behalf of our clients. This includes the annual preparation of the company statement, the Declaration of Solvency and where applicable, attending to change of directors and change of addresses. In most cases we also maintain our client's share registry details.

Audit

An audit is an examination of the financial statements of a client. We provide an opinion on the balance sheet and profit and loss statement of the client and provide this opinion to the members of the client and in some cases government departments. We also oversee the audit of trust accounts for Real Estate Agents, Solicitors and Travel Agents.

Valuations of Businesses

We carry out valuations for clients for various reasons including the purchase or sale of a business, business partner buyouts, employee buy-ins, family law breaks and even shareholder disputes. We determine the value of shares for stamp duty purposes, family law matters and for deceased estates.

Accounting Software Support

We provide ongoing assistance and advice to clients on operating and maintaining their accounting data files. We liaise with external bookkeepers and internal accountants to provide them with ongoing advice as to the correct treatment of all transactions. We are experts in software including MYOB, Xero and Quickbooks.

Estate Planning

We advise clients on matters pertaining to their ultimate estate including advice on capital gains tax, the transfer of assets to beneficiaries, and any superannuation related issues.

We liaise direct with solicitors on your behalf to ensure that your Wills are up to date, you have Binding Death Nominations (if applicable) and offer assistance with Powers of Attorney and enduring Guardianships.

Workers Compensation Declarations

We review many client's workers compensation wages annual declarations to ensure the correct amount of wages are being declared and that you are claiming any exemptions that may apply to you.