Get in touch with your accountant

This article first appeared May 6, 2011.

The end of the financial year is starting to loom large in the eyes of many entrepreneurs and their advisers.

Budgets still need to be met, next year’s budgets still need to be written and the end of the tax year is also rushing up quickly.

If you are a start-up and are new at dealing with EOFY tax matters, it’s a great idea to get in touch with your accountant (and lawyer, if you got some particularly prickly tax matters to deal with) and start talking about what you need to do before June 30.

There may be some records or documents you need together (although accounting software packages have eliminated the whole receipts-in-the-shoebox thing) and reports you need to prepare.

More importantly, there may be some things you can do to minimise your 2010-11 tax bill, including deferring revenue and bringing forward expenses to this financial year.

Exactly what you will be able to do will depend on the sort of business you run, so a quick chat with your accountant is crucial if you want to stay on the right side of the taxman.

Get it done – today!