Bucket Companies: The least known and most underutilised strategy to save thousands in tax

“Use Bucket companies – tax tip of the week!”

I’d love to shed some light on what we call ‘Bucket Companies’, also called:

• Corporate Beneficiary
• Dump Company
• Family Vault
• Second Super
• And a few other creative ones!

Why this strategy is so critical, is because it can help cap your tax rate at 30%.

And as a quick refresher, as a sole trader you can pay up to 51% in tax (including the temporary budget repair levy).

 

Who is a Bucket Company strategy for?

Ideally:

• Business owners (or investors)
• Running their business or receiving income through a discretionary trust structure
• Not caught under the Personal Services Income (PSI) rules (if you don’t know what this is, hopefully the rules don’t apply, but you can read more on PSI here)

The idea of a bucket company is that they take ‘excess’ profits, after distributing a reasonable amount to the people within a family group.

Bucket Companies are incredibly useful

1. For business owners who earn more than their cost of living, and want to build a nest egg for their family;
2. When business owners are having big fluctuations in incomes between financial years as they can be used to make the tax bills more consistent; and
3. For business owners coming up to retirement or selling their business, and no longer earning as much business income moving forward.

 

What are the tax benefits of using a Bucket Company?

If done right, Bucket Companies can generally save thousands of dollars in tax for a client, year on year.

Let’s use an example of a trust earning $300k in profit.  But we’ll review the tax rates first.

For 2017 FY, the individual tax rates (including medicare levy) are:

 

Company tax rates for 2017 FY are:

 

So if we’ve got a trust that’s earned $300k in profit, we need to allocate that to people or entities within a family group.

Now it makes sense to take eligible people up to $37k in income.  That means we’ve taken them up to 19% tax on their income, and every dollar over $37k (but under $87k) they pay 34.5% tax. (See the table above)

Compare that to a company, where it would only pay 30% on the first dollar it receives, but every dollar after that.

But our ‘magic number’ from a distribution perspective to individuals (or people) is $87k, which might defy some people’s logic.  This means they will be paying 34.5% tax on the income between $37-87k.

Do read on.

 

Do I need to actually pay the cash to the Bucket Company?

The reason why the magic number is $87k, is that when we distribute to a company, the cash needs to follow as well (the company needs to get paid).  Otherwise we raise Division 7A issues and the ATO doesn’t like ‘on paper’ distributions without the intention of ever paying them.

We find that the $87k mark usually covers people’s cost of living, and they can commonly pay all or a good portion of the cash to their bucket company.

If you distribute to a company, then the company itself will have a tax bill. So you’ll have to pay at least 30% of whatever you distribute to it as a tax payment eventually!

 

What are the Tax Benefits of a Bucket Company?

Let’s look at the benefits of the bucket company using $300k profit as a case study:

Tax saving by using Bucket Company $11,200.  Not bad ‘ey?

Getting the cash out of Bucket Companies

We discovered above that the cash actually has to follow the distributed amount from the trust.  And then the tax bill needs to be paid.

But now we’re left with some money in the company, so how do we get the money out?

Well there’s two ways to do it:

1. Loan it from the company
2. Pay dividends to the shareholders from the company

They both have their pro’s and con’s – let’s hit it:

 

1. Loan it from the company

These loans are called ‘Division 7A loans’ and are a minefield if not treated correctly, but can be used effectively.

Your Bucket Company effectively becomes a bank.

You loan money from it, and have to pay principal and interest repayments.

If your loan is unsecured, you have 7 years to pay back the cash.

If your loan is secured (on a property let’s say), then you have 30 years to pay back the cash.

The interest rate is set each financial year by the ATO, but usually not rediciulous. (5-7%)

So it’s kind of treating your company at arms length, like a bank, without dealing with the muppets.

This strategy can be very effective for loaning your 20% deposit for a house or property, then the 80% difference from an actual bank.  That way (if secured) you get 30 years to pay back the loan to your own company. (More on this in a moment.)

 

2. Pay dividends to the shareholders from the company

The second way to get money out of a Bucket Company is through paying a dividend to the shareholders of the company.

The shareholders are who ‘own’ the shares in the company.
Now when we pay a dividend, the shareholders get taxed on that dividend, but they receive a ‘franking credit’ for the tax that the company has already paid.

Sidenote on franking credits: The company has paid 30% tax on their income, or 30 cents for each dollar it earned.  When the company pays dividends, the shareholder is taxed on the full amount of the dividend (or profit the company has already paid tax on).  But the franking credit offsets the tax bill for the shareholder.  For instance, if the shareholder will pay on average 34.5% in tax on the dividend they receive, they get a 30% franking credit, only having to pay ‘top up tax’ of 4.5% on the dividend they received.

So you should always consider the tax impact of paying that dividend.

And MORE importantly, you must consider who the shareholders are of the Bucket Company.

If they are individuals, then you can only distribute to those individuals (in the % of shares that each of them own).

All too often we see husband & wife owning 50/50% of the bucket companies.  But the problem with this is we may have little control on what the husband and wife earn separately to the dividend.

The best thing to own the shares in a Bucket Company is actually another, separate discretionary trust.  We call these ‘Asset Trusts’.

That means when we pay the dividends from the company, they fall to the asset trust, then the trustees of the asset trust can allocate the didends to the family members who pay the least amount of tax.  You retain ultimate flexibility.

In summary, getting the money out isn’t straightforward, and working with an advisor who knows their stuff is non-negotiable.

 

How will giving money to a Bucket Company affect my ability to get finance from a bank?

Stupid disclaimer and warning: always consult a savvy mortgage broker for questions about finance, aka a “Loans Guy or Girl”.  Ben Walker isn’t a licenced credit representative, and this section is a compilation with Jake Pretorius from our office (our “Loans Guy”) and a licenced Credit Representative (No. 402028) of BLSSA Pty Ltd ACN 117 651 760 (Australian Credit Licence No. 391237).  It’s based on our understanding of banks at the time, but they change their policies more then they change their underpants. Let’s keep in mind this is general advice and does not take into account your personal needs and financial situation.

Our understanding and experience with banks is that Bucket Companies don’t stop you getting finance from the banks.

Because you’re a business owner, the banks don’t just take your personal income to service your loan.

They’ll look at all related companies and trusts, and assuming there’s consistency, they’ll take your total group income into account.

So if you distribute $100k to a Bucket Company, banks should see this as your business income.

Can I use equity in my current property, plus cash from the Bucket Company for a deposit to buy an investment property?

While this is a complex question and scenario, but we believe it’s possible.  But always check with your switched on mortgage broker to find the lenders who will do this.

Can the company buy property?

The company can technically own property and use the built up cash to buy it, but I wouldn’t recommend that strategy.

The simple reason why is that a company is NOT eligible for the ‘50% capital gains tax discount’, but a trust or an individual is.

Now in english, the ‘50% capital gains tax discount’ means that if you own an asset (like a property) for more than 12 months, then you get a 50% discount on the amount you get taxed on when you sell that asset and make a gain.

Some quick numbers on the benefits:

Tax saving by owning property in trust or individual is $12,750.

 

So to maintain ultimate control of your tax bill when you sell the property, own the property or asset through an Asset Trust.

Ok, so how do I use the cash in the company to buy property?

You can loan the money from the Bucket Company to your Asset Trust (secured).  Then the rest can come from the bank.

This gives you 30 years to pay back the loan to the company, and assuming it’s an investment property, pay tax deductible interest from the Asset Trust back to your own Bucket Company.

See the “Loan it from the company” section above for more details.

And always, always, always see a switched on mortgage broker for help with this sort of loan structuring.

In conclusion…

That’s a super detailed overview of what we call ‘Bucket Companies’ and how you can use it to cap your tax rate at 30%.

If you want to ask any questions about this strategy or you’d like a second opinion on your tax, flick me an email to ben@inspireca.com.

JobKeeper: Do I Need to Pay Super?

 

“Do I have to pay superannuation on the JobKeeper payments?” 

 

There are three relatively common examples your  team members might be in.

1. Team members that have been stood down – not giving any hours to the business. You still need to pay the minimum $1,500 per fortnight to receive the JobKeeper payment for them. Any top-up amount or the full $1,500 is paid to an employee that has been stood down, there’s actually no super on that at all, which is great.

1. Team member working part time or not on high wages (one or two days a week) receiving about $500 a fortnight. Keep in mind, you have to top up their pay to $1,500 a fortnight for you to be eligible for the JobKeeper payment. Let’s say, they’re working still and they’re earning $500. With the $500, that’s what you would normally pay super on. But any top-up amounts to take them up to the JobKeeper level, there’s no superannuation requirement on that portion, which is great.

1.  Team members paid more than $1,500 a fortnight – they’re still working for the business, they’re not stood down and they haven’t been terminated. Now, they’re already getting paid more than the minimum $1,500 per fortnight and if they’re working, then yes, you still have to pay superannuation on their salary or their wages.

 

So if they’re stood down, then no, you don’t have to pay super on the minimum JobKeeper payment.

If they’re earning something but not the full $1,500 and you have to top up their wage, you pay super just on what they’ve earned, not on that top up.

And if someone’s earning more than the JobKeeper and still working, then of course, no rules have changed there. There’s still superannuation on their salary.

If you need help with JobKeeper book a strategy call with one of our accountants: https://calendly.com/inspireca/strategycall

JobKeeper Programme: Extensions Announced

 

Last week, the government announced two extensions for the JobKeeper programme.

1. The enrollment to the JobKeeper programme has been extended to the 31st of May. So there’s no rush to enrol now.
2. If you want to claim JobKeeper from the start ( the fortnight beginning on the 30th of March) you need to make sure, any back pay for those first two fortnights, are paid by the 8th of May.

We’re really pleased with the announcement as it gives us a bit of time to not rush things through and to help more people.

If you need help with JobKeeper book a strategy call with one of our accountants: https://calendly.com/inspireca/strategycall

 

Happiness is a number between 1 and 10. What’s yours?

If happiness was as simple as forcibly contracting a set of facial muscles, we’d all be happy – whenever we wanted and the world might be a better a place.  However, that’s not the case.  So this question might sound a bit forced but it’s a starting point to finding more happiness in your business life, drawing it out and enjoying it with family and friends.  On a scale of 1-10 (10 being “all-the-time” awesome and one being “I’m so exhausted, my brain has decided to switch everything off but my heart and lungs), how happy are you?

Wait, don’t answer that yet.  How happy are you at the end of your weekend when Monday, whenever that occurs for you, is only a few hours away?  Dreading it?  Take a point off.  Does the weekend just mean that you can get on with more work and admin without having to necessarily answer the phone or emails?  Take another point off.  Has it become a pattern that another weekend flew by without you having a chance to have some meaningful time with your family – or even your “non-work self”?  Take a thousand points off!  Yes, a thousand!  Now answer.

We get it, you’re operating on auto-pilot, staggering from one week to the next, maybe you don’t know what to do about it and that’s all very frustrating.  But as usual there is an answer.

 

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus and Frustration comes from not knowing

Frustration makes you feel helpless, a little bit angry and comes with an overwhelming feeling that change is a long, long way away.  Of all the numbers we like to talk about such as your magic number, what your business is worth, the payment terms you offer etc, all roads surely lead to this number:  Your happiness score out of 10.   Your happiness score’s natural enemy is frustration and frustration comes from not knowing your other numbers.  Let’s look at a couple of test scenarios in dot point form:

• You don’t know how much money you’re going to have to pay out this month – frustration
• You don’t know how much money is coming in this month – frustration
• You don’t know if you’ll have enough to cover BAS (how’s that for timing?) – frustration
• You don’t know if you could have paid less tax – frustration, anger, resentment, bitterness

You know what?  There’s no way you could enjoy a true happiness score over maybe a 4 with all that frustration.

 

Lift your awareness, lift the burden, lift your game, raise your happiness score

Rather than us simply saying to you, “if you’re not as happy as you think you should be, just force a smile and you’ll feel better”, we want to offer you the type of sound advice that allows you the freedom to be genuinely happy.  Happy with yourself, your business and of course your family.  If you’re not feeling it, they’ll know and no amount of cheek muscle raises and flexes will fix that.

We’re all about, helping you get to a point where work doesn’t feel like toil and it actually brings a certain joy to you and your family – and if not joy at least an average score of around 8/10.  If you like the sound of that then please feel free to call our number  and let’s get to work on it.

Would you like to pay by the hour or by the result? Let’s focus on saving money not charging fees

 

Do you ever feel yourself getting a little uncomfortable, suspicious or even cynical when you are getting charged by the hour by a consultant of some sort?  It’s okay, we do too.  It’s not a bad thing and it’s totally normal to wonder what’s really going on while you’re not around.  Here’s another question, do you find it difficult to explain a problem while you’re on the clock? And that clock is removing hard-earned cash from your wallet every 6 to 15 minutes?  In which case are you thinking about the advice you’re receiving or the money you’re spending?

I am asking you to think about these questions because as you know our focus is on helping you to pull more money and family time and happiness from your business and sidestep the stress where possible.  Oh and make no mistake – those feelings of cynicism quickly turn to stress when you’re paying huge amounts of tax unnecessarily and you don’t even know why.

 

The beginning and the end

We are all at the tail end of another BAS quarter (that came around quickly, didn’t it?) and right on the door step of another tax season.  We’ve made no secret of the fact that saving tax is all about having and executing a good, solid plan.  We had a tax-saving plan last year and we even set ourselves an ambitious target: save our clients $500k.  However, things got a little out of hand and we managed to saved our clients more than double that.  Our advice to you is to get onto either executing, working on or starting a plan to help maximise your savings.

If you need help with that, please do ask us – we’d love to help.

 

You’re paying for more savings and great advice, not hours and minutes

So one of the things that makes us unique here at Inspire is that our clients pay for a result.  We pride ourselves on tax saved, on positive impacts created within and outside our communities and of course the quality of life we have a hand in creating with the service we provide.  We don’t talk about billable hours, filling up timesheets and revenue raised.  Why would we when we started our business to help others, not helping ourselves to others cash.

It sounds like a bit of a brag and maybe it is in one way, but in reality we are just so focused on delivering to you what you’re paying for.  Which is great advice and cold, hard, tax savings.  That’s what our clients pay us for – not time.

The Real Cost of Cars – A CBD carpark, yours for $407K. It all counts

 

Sometimes you find yourself driving around the city on a weekend wishing you had a guaranteed space to park your car.  That’s just part of normal life nowadays but it can get frustrating.  But finding a place to park, let alone finding a “dream-spot”, is only half the problem as the price of parking in some cities is increasing at a rate that would make a real estate agent blush.

With some Sydney-based commuters spending upwards of $19K a year on CBD parking alone, is it any wonder people are purchasing parking spots for huge sums?  A few years ago it was reported that a New York City car spot was going for around a million dollars.  However, last Saturday marked the anniversary of a Sydney paper reporting the sale price of a Bond Street car space for $400,000 – breath-taking!

Australians have a reputation for loving their cars or at the very least, the freedom that comes with access to a car.  But we often forget about the cost of running a car.  It’s not just the price of purchase (or lease if you’ve gone that way), it’s the fuel, rego, maintenance, cleaning and… the parking!

 

But really, how bad could it be?

Cars make life a whole lot easier in many areas of Australia however, the costs are one of the numbers you’ll need to keep an eye on as a business owner.  Some time ago, I decided to break down the various vehicle-related costs I was accruing on a very nice, leased, top-of-the-line vehicle.  From an emotional standpoint I could happily tell everyone that the comfort, the performance, the prestige and the admiration of likeminded car enthusiasts, more than made up for the costs.

But there’s more to most stories than emotion… there are cold, hard, uncompromising facts.  Facts and figures that Ben was more than happy (too happy?) to go over with me and then share on a recent facebook live (squirm).

Turns out that thanks to monthly expenses like the lease ($1200), fuel ($500), rego, premium cleaning (for a prestige car – very necessary), private carpark (also necessary), valet parking at Qantas… put it this way, we’re already a hair over $2700 every month.  Wait, what!?!

 

Wow, so what now?

What now?  Nowadays, I do what I should have done instead of falling under the spell of that fantastic car and everything it forced me to do against my will.  Confronted with the numbers, I joined the growing legion of people who are increasingly looking to a combination of public transport, Uber, their own cars, pedal power and just legging it from point A to point B?

For me, travel is a very necessary part of what I do and I don’t see that slowing down – there’s far too much knowledge out there and value in being (literally) present to stay put.  However, by practising what we preach, I weigh the cost of getting around against the value (dollars, experiences, knowledge) that is derived.  That’s how I maintain a favourable balance between costs and benefits.  So over-priced parking costs, rarely come into the equation.

To have a conversation about how you could balance your costs or even just to find out if you can afford a nice carpark in Sydney, feel free to contact us.

Saying “No” to Necker? First World solutions to third world problems

First World solutions to first world problems with real life impacts

I want to start by saying that this is a guilt-free article, packed with opportunity and inspiration.  So don’t worry, you needn’t try to hide any first world problems you might have.  It’s not about that.

Besides, having “first world” problems is nothing to be ashamed of if your heart’s in the right place.  After all, we live in the first world, so it’s safe to say that many, if not, all of our problems are going to be from there (here).   But here’s a question.  Should a business owner spend a large sum to visit Richard Branson’s luxurious Necker Island to commune with like-minded entrepreneurs or help provide hope to those eking out an existence in third world conditions?  When you put it like that – the answer seems pretty clear.  The answer that you’d be willing to say out loud in a crowd anyway.  That’s because you have been offered a clear choice between a fair answer and one that ticks an awful lot of boxes and might actually be the perfect one.

Think about this: what if we removed or obscured the second alternative and simply asked, “should a business owner spend a large sum to visit Richard Branson’s luxurious Necker Island to commune with like-minded entrepreneurs?”  Now it feels like the only possible answer is “yes, I’ll just grab my passport and sunhat.”

Tip – Recognise that the biggest first world problem is not a lack of focus but too narrow a focus.  Widen that to see other possibilities and your eyes may be opened (wide) to new opportunities to make a difference.

Malawi – the place and the opportunity

In many ways Malawi, the land-locked east African nation, is a place of striking beauty but it has suffered some cruel blows.  Held to ransom by drought, lack of reliable nutrition and poverty, it shares an unhappy legacy with many other countries whose populations grapple with sickness and despair on a daily basis.

The good thing (and the opportunity) is that a lot of commodities in places like Malawi are very inexpensive when compared to what we pay in our cities and towns.  For example, one dollar for 600ml of bottled water seems like a steal in Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne.  But in places like Malawi, that dollar could literally change lives – if only for a month.  Put enough of those dollars together and before too long, lives, families, communities are on the road to reclaiming sustainability – planting hope and reaping life.

We feel very passionate about this because we have been inspired by the difference we could help make by supporting carefully selected program partners such at B1G1.

So “no to Necker?”

Yes… and no.  We figured that the wonderful opportunity that is Necker Island will be there for some time to come.  But for the estimated 1.7million people in Malawi who risk disease and even death because of the lack of drinkable water, well, there’s not a moment to lose.

Fact: $0.01aud is the cost of access to water for one day in places like Malawi.

We hope to inspire you to join our journey to provide a country in dire need with one million days of access to clean water through a special initiative we’ll be embarking upon.  It’ll be rewarding, impactful and something you can help with.

We’ll let you know how and share more of our very exciting story, very soon.