With the end of the 2015 financial year now approaching for many businesses, PwC has released a tax planning checklist (http://read.pwc.com/i/477520) to assist with preparations for year-end as at 31 March 2015. 

PwC Private Business Partner Scott Kerse says it’s a good time for businesses to consider their year-end tax positions and all options available to them, as well as their 2016 provisional tax obligations. 

“Planning for year-end can be a daunting task for business owners so we’ve aimed to simplify the process and provide them with all the elements they should be considering, current taxation rates and information on provisional tax obligations for easy reference.” 

Some items of particular importance for businesses are: 

• identifying accrued and/or prepaid expenditure that may not be deductible for tax purposes in the current year; 

• ensuring you are maximising the depreciation available on your fixed assets, and making sure your tax fixed asset register is accurate and, where relevant, writing off assets that have been disposed of; 

• consideration of whether debts have gone bad and writing these off prior to year-end; 

• consideration of intercompany loan balances and whether appropriate interest has been charged; 

• monitoring shareholder accounts to ensure they are not overdrawn at year-end; and 

• considering whether losses can be carried forward from past years or offset between group entities. 

“Our checklist may also help businesses identify areas in which they need further professional assistance such as tax fixed asset register reviews, a GST or fringe benefit tax review or assistance with transfer pricing documentation,” he says.