DuncanM
Reply: 1
From: Mike .
Accountants dont solve a shoebox mentality..
From: DuncanM
Date: 16 Feb 2001
Time: 10:13:36
Sorry dont know one..
I often see requests for good Accountants.. I do trust my accountant (in Adelaide).. but I dont put a blind faith in him.
I'm often look around the Tax Office web-site, reading rulings, reading their guides, reading books. Given that Tax has the potential to be my biggest expense I put a lot of time into educating myself about how the laws are applied.
The thing I've come to realise over the last 2 years (and you may well know this already) is that the MOST important thing you can do is to keep extremely detailed records, every phone call (who, what, why etc), car trip, payment, receipt, every lease, every tenant, every fixture/fitting, capital improvments, every transaction on your loans, your PAYE income, insurance policies, work related expenses, Home Office expenses, charitable donations etc etc..
Keeping records means that even if you dont know the tax law, allowable deductions etc, you can still make use of them later as they can be reverse engineered from your records. Additionally, I make no payments in cash to anyone, its all by credit card or cheque. I keep my records up to date religiously and in fact have them at a point where I know my Tax Position to within a few dollars at any point in the year.. We also file religiously, every statement, receipt, invoice etc etc.. Laid out property by property.
Give any property savvy accountant your shoebox at the end of a financial year and you wont be minimising your tax.
Regards, Duncan,.
