The end of the financial year can be a particularly busy and demanding time for everyone in business. Now is the time to plan your personal finances, so you can maximise your benefits come tax time.

Super opportunities

The Government has made significant changes to superannuation in recent years to encourage all Australians to save for their own retirement. Superannuation is an attractive strategy for business owners to consider in order to minimise the tax they pay on their income and help build wealth outside the business. Best of all, under the new super rules they can access any previously taxed superannuation benefits from age 60 tax-free.

Here are two popular super strategies for business people:

Maximise deductible contributions

This financial year more generous annual limits apply for tax-deductible super contributions for eligible self-employed people under age 50. Under the new rules, where eligible you can claim a full tax deduction on up to $50,000 contributed to super this financial year, around $8,000 more than last financial year. If you are over age 50, where eligible you can claim a full tax deduction on up to $100,000 of super contributions each year prior to 1 July 2012. From this time the normal annual limit applies ($50,000 indexed).

Access the Government Co-contribution

If you have more than 10% of your total income for the year from your business (including any salary and fringe benefit payments) and you are under age 71 at 30 June, you may be eligible for the Government Co-contribution. The maximum Co-contribution is the lower of 150% of any after-tax personal contributions you make to super or a maximum of $1,500. The maximum amount of the Co-contribution reduces when your income exceeds $28,980 and stops completely at incomes above $58,980. Any Government Co-contribution is paid automatically into your super fund tax-free.

Investment strategies

This is the time of year when you are likely see a number of so-called "tax-effective" investment schemes advertised (for example, various film or agricultural schemes). While some schemes might offer valid investment opportunities, make sure you understand the difference between tax minimisation and tax avoidance when it comes to these schemes. Usually if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The government takes investor fraud very seriously, and has a website (www.fido.com.au) you can use to obtain advice about those offering investments.

While investment decisions should never be based solely on tax, there are simple strategies you can use to minimise your tax bill at the end of the financial year.

Pre-paying interest on investment loans

If you have borrowed to finance an investment, you can generally offset income generated from that investment with any interest payments you have made on the loan. One strategy for reducing your assessable income from your investment is to pre-pay interest on your investment loan. Fixed rate loans may include a facility that enables you to pay interest on the loan for up to 12 months in advance. This can allow you to bring forward an expense that may otherwise be tax-deductible in the following financial year. This additional tax deduction can be used to reduce your taxable income in the current financial year.

Minimising capital gains

If you are considering selling a security that has depreciated in value since you purchased it, such as a share, it might be worth acting before the end of the financial year. You may be able to offset your capital loss against other assessable capital gains to reduce your assessable income. Conversely, if you have an asset that has grown in value that you would like to sell, it may be worth deferring the sale until after the financial year ends.

It is important you keep track of when you buy and sell investments in your portfolio as it can affect the amount of capital gains tax you pay. In general, you can reduce the amount of capital gains tax you might pay by holding your investment for 12 months or more. For individuals, tax is generally payable only on 50 percent of the assessable capital gain if an asset is held for more than a year. This reduces the effective tax rate payable on any capital gains by 50%. The rules are specific, so you need to keep accurate records of all your transactions to ensure you pay the correct amount of tax.

Before you make any decisions about changing your investment portfolio, you should seek financial advice from a fully qualified professional financial adviser.

The benefits of professional advice

Superannuation, investing and taxation are complex areas so it's important to seek appropriate financial advice from qualified advisers. Your ANZ Relationship Manager can refer you to an ANZ Financial Planner for an obligation free consultation.

To find out more about how you could benefit from the various superannuation options, consider attending one of our nationwide seminars which will focus on the super changes. Please speak with your ANZ Relationship Manager for further details.

Disclaimer: Any advice provided in this publication is general advice that has been prepared without taking into consideration the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular person. Before acting on any advice in this publication, you should consider its appropriateness to your individual circumstances. It is advisable to seek independent professional financial advice tailored to your own objectives, financial situation and needs before you make any decision.