Government reporting
Financial Reporting
The presence of government to a family business is significant and sometimes demanding. Family businesses might have to undertake some ongoing government reporting to the Australian Tax Office (ATO), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), State Revenue Office (like RevenueWA), Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Department of Immigration and Aus Industry.
In addition, many family businesses have other government (or semi-government) reporting obligations like Building Registration Board, IATA and Commerce WA.
At Westcourt, we understand the obligations to satisfy the multi-faceted government reporting obligations. And we actively work with your team to understand the government reporting obligations that can affect your industry and highlight the potential extra commitments you might be exposed to so that you can actively plan for these.
For larger family businesses that do not want the burden of a financial audit and desire privacy, we will work with them to avoid ASIC disclosure. The active management of businesses through legitimate means of discretionary trusts and management ASIC thresholds for reporting can allow a business to thrive and not show their sensitive financial information through the ASIC government reporting obligations. For example, it can be done by structuring different entities to employ staff away from the primary trading entity, transferring investible assets away from the primary trading entity or structuring businesses through multiple trading companies. Alternatively, companies outside of the reportable structure should be used to ensure that financial profits are lower so that sensitive data is part of the reported group.
Suppose you are stuck with government reporting obligations. In that case, we can assist with meeting these by engaging Westcourt to attend to those obligations. We help by using technology to automate the obligations – this could include cloud accounting programs like Xero and QBO (and sometimes MYOB) with preset templates.
The obligations to report to the government are often aligned with the financial results that management is using. So, the reporting obligations are often simple, and it is more of a matter of just ensuring that the reporting obligations are completed on time.
Choosing Westcourt to assist your government reporting obligation to the ATO, ASIC, and other agencies is a sound business decision. We have specialist advisors with deep technical knowledge, a focus on families in business, and a robust international network that will allow us to manage government agencies internationally.
