EOFY tax planning checklist: before 30 June 2027

Tax planning is not about finding tricks. It is about knowing your position before the year ends and making the decisions you were going to make anyway at the right time, with the right paperwork. Everything on this list is ordinary, lawful and ATO-sanctioned; most of it has a hard deadline of 30 June. Work through it from April.

1. Know your position first

• Bring the books up to date to the end of the latest month — reconciled bank, invoices raised, bills entered.
• Project to 30 June: expected income and expenses for the remaining months, large one-offs noted.
• Estimate the tax on the projected profit — the sole trader or company tax calculator gives the figure — and compare with PAYG instalments paid.
• Decide whether this year or next is the higher-rate year. Every timing lever below depends on that answer.

2. Time income and expenses

• Invoicing — where commercially sensible, work completed in late June can be invoiced in July (accruals-basis businesses are taxed when the invoice is raised; cash-basis when paid). Never delay an invoice a customer is waiting to pay.
• Prepayments — small businesses can deduct up to 12 months of prepaid rent, insurance, subscriptions, interest and similar in the year paid.
• Repairs and maintenance — genuine repairs completed and paid by 30 June are deductible now; improvements are depreciated.
• Staff bonuses and director's fees — deductible this year only if the business is definitively committed to them by 30 June (a resolution or written notice), and paid within a reasonable time.
• Bad debts — review the debtors list and write off amounts that are genuinely unrecoverable before 30 June; the write-off must be recorded, not just intended.

3. Assets and the instant asset write-off

• Assets under $20,000 (excluding GST if registered) first used or installed ready for use by 30 June are deductible in full for small businesses with turnover under $10 million. Ordered-but-not-delivered does not count. See the instant asset write-off guide.
• Assets at or over $20,000 go into the small business pool: 15% in the first year, 30% after.
• Scrap and obsolete assets — write off assets no longer used and remove them from the register.
• Motor vehicles — a logbook that covers 12 continuous weeks and is less than five years old; the car limit applies to vehicles above it.

4. Super

• Employee super for the June quarter must be received by the fund by 30 June to be deductible this year; under Payday Super it is due within seven business days of each payday anyway, so check the last June pays clear in time.
• Personal deductible contributions (sole traders, partners, anyone topping up) — paid and received by 30 June, within the $32,500 concessional cap for 2026–27 including employer contributions; lodge a notice of intent with the fund before you lodge your return.
• Carry-forward cap — if your total super balance was under $500,000 on 30 June 2026, unused concessional cap from the past five years may be available. Check in ATO online services.
• Contractor super — labour-only contractors are owed super: see super for ABN contractors.

5. Stock, debtors and creditors

• Stocktake at 30 June (or use the simplified rules if the difference from the opening value is under $5,000).
• Value stock at the lower of cost, market selling value or replacement value — obsolete or damaged lines can be written down.
• Review creditors — expenses incurred but unpaid are deductible on an accruals basis once the liability exists.

6. Trusts, companies and Division 7A

• Trustee distribution resolutions must be made by 30 June (earlier if the deed says so) and documented — see trust distributions before 30 June. Distributions to beneficiaries who never see the money attract section 100A attention.
• Division 7A — shareholder loans from a company must be repaid or placed on a complying loan agreement by the company's lodgment day, with minimum repayments at 8.77% for 2026–27. Unpaid present entitlements to companies are caught too. See Division 7A loans.
• Franking — plan dividends and franking credits before 30 June if shareholders' incomes differ between years.
• Structure review — if profit has outgrown the structure, the change is best made at 1 July, not mid-year. See the structures guide.

7. FBT and the car

• FBT year ends 31 March — odometer readings, logbooks and employee contributions should be in hand by then; the return is due 21 May (25 June with an agent, lodged electronically).
• Electric vehicles — the FBT exemption for eligible EVs under the luxury car tax threshold still needs the benefit reported as a reportable fringe benefit.

8. Records

• Receipts for every deduction (bank statements are not enough on their own); asset register; logbooks; home office hours record (70c fixed-rate method) or actual-cost workings.
• Payroll reconciled to STP; STP finalisation by 14 July.
• TPAR data for building, cleaning, courier, IT and security businesses — due 28 August.
• Loan statements split between business and private; the business-use percentage of mixed assets.

9. If you are an employee or investor

Most of the above is for businesses. For personal tax the levers are fewer: a deductible super contribution within the cap, prepaying interest on an investment loan, timing an asset sale against your income (and against the 1 July 2027 CGT change), donations to deductible gift recipients by 30 June, and choosing between the $1,000 standard deduction and itemised work expenses. Our guide to reducing your tax legally covers each one.

Frequently asked

Sources: ATO — Instant asset write-off, Prepaid expenses, Contributions caps, Bad debts. General information current at 30-10-2026 for the year ending 30 June 2027, not advice.