If you have business income (as a sole trader with an ABN, or perhaps a partnership or trust – though this guide is primarily individuals/sole traders), you need to report business financials in your tax return (under the business schedule). We want to help you maximize business deductions while complying with the rules.
Here’s what to bring and consider for your business (sole trader) return:
Income Records for Business
Sales/Income
Gather all evidence of your business earnings. This could be invoices issued to clients, receipts from customers, summaries from gig economy platforms (e.g., Uber provides an end-of-year summary of your gross fares, their service fees, etc.). If you have a Point-of-Sale system or accounting software, print out the Profit & Loss statement for July–June. If you maintained just a spreadsheet or logbook of jobs done and paid, bring that. We need the total gross income. If any amounts were paid in cash, make sure they’re included – cash is taxable too. If you received any government grants or COVID support for your business (e.g., COVID relief grants, etc.), note those as well; many are taxable.
Accounts Receivable
Money you earned by 30 June but not received until after can still be included if you’re using accrual accounting. Most sole traders use cash basis (declare when received), but if you have debtors and you know you should include them, let us know. Generally, for simplicity, we do cash basis unless you have inventory or it’s beneficial to do accrual.
Industry-specific
Tradespeople: Provide summaries of jobs or contracts, or your bank statements highlighting business deposits.
Rideshare/Delivery drivers: The platforms usually provide annual statements: e.g., Uber’s Annual Tax Summary shows your gross rider payments, Uber fees, other adjustments (like safe driving rewards, etc.). This is very useful – bring it. You must declare the gross and you can deduct their service fee. Same for Deliveroo, DoorDash, etc. They also may list how many kms driven while passenger on trip (Uber does) – but be careful, that doesn’t include kms between jobs, so you likely have more to claim if you kept a log. See Vehicle in deductions below.
Airbnb hosts: The platform can show total gross receipts and the fees they took. Bring those. Also, note if you used the property personally for part of the year.
Freelancers: If you did Upwork/Fiverr jobs, you might have a report of earnings and their fees. Provide those or your own records.
Retail or E-commerce: If you run an online store (Shopify, eBay, Amazon) or a physical stall, provide sales records. These platforms often have dashboards with sales figures. Remember to consider cash sales if any (like market stall cash takings). If you use Square/Paypal, etc., those statements help too.
Professionals/Consultants: Invoices or contracts that show what you charged. If you received any royalties or licensing income, note those.
Crypto business: If you were trading crypto as a business (high-frequency, intending to profit from short-term trades), that might be treated as business income rather than capital gains – that’s a complex determination, we’d discuss. If so, you’d inventory your crypto. But most individuals are investors, not business, in crypto unless actively day-trading like a business.
Government Payments
If you are eligible for Small Business COVID grants or other grants (e.g., state government grants for small business), many are taxable unless specifically legislated as nonassessable. Provide info on any such grants or COVID Disaster Payments or JobKeeper (JobKeeper to business is assessable; JobSeeker is personal and already covered). Some state grants were declared non-taxable in specific legislation; we can check which if you tell us the name of grant.
Other Business Income
This could include business bank interest (if you have a separate business account yielding interest), or maybe a sale of business assets (if you sold a piece of equipment, that can trigger a balancing adjustment, possibly a gain or just reduce depreciation claim). Also if you received insurance proceeds for a business asset or for business interruption, that is income.
Let us help your business be on top of tax & compliance this financial year!