AUTHOR

Trevor Lake, Director in Business Advisory at RSM Geraldton, also serving as National Leader of Allied Health, with a background in finance, business management, and community board leadership.
Trevor Lake
Partner, Allied Health

Structuring your business to suit your medical practice is a very important part of your business.

It is a big topic for conversation and each structure has different benefits and downsides. We ask you to consider how experienced the person that is looking after your tax is.

Is your local medical practitioner friend down the road or your seasoned medical practitioner accountant who knows the traps?

When it comes to tax and structuring advice, RSM’s specialists have you covered because this is what we do.

RSM ensures the risks are covered around tax compliance required by medical practitioners.

Not only that, we believe we can add value when it comes to transactions to ensure it suits you and the business.

A VARIETY OF MATTERS NEEDS TO BE CONSIDERED WHEN LOOKING AT A BUSINESS STRUCTURE:

  • Who owns the business
  • How many owners are there
  • Do you need asset protection
  • What is the size of the business
  • Do you have any succession planning considerations
  • What structure will give you better tax outcomes
  • When it comes to business structures, it is not a case of one size fits all. 
     

THE GOALS OF A BUSINESS STRUCTURE IN MEDICAL PRACTICES:

  • Provide maximum flexibility to suit your business needs
  • Maximise your after-tax cash flow so that it suits your needs

CHANGES THAT WE MAY RECOMMEND TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS:

  • Identify costs and benefits of changing your structure
  • Minimise or eliminate stamp duty in many cases
  • Minimise or eliminate capital gains tax

The ATO covers a lot of ground, and they have access to data from a number of sources. We believe clients should attend to their tax affairs with integrity and ensure that they do what is expected, know the fundamental areas of compliance and seek advice on complex issues. It is no different from the expectations you have from your patients when they have health issues. You want to seek advice because you know how to approach the problems.

Medical practitioners should see tax as another overhead that needs to be managed. Like any major overheads, you want forewarning of how much it is going to be and when it is payable. You also want to know how you can manage it and where possible reduce it.

This can be done by:

  • Monitoring your cash flow on a regular basis
  • Attend tax planning meetings and put tax saving strategies in place
  • Monitor the effect of tax to be paid and the timing of the payment and how it will affect your cash flow 
     

For further information

The tax laws can be complex with implementing tax and structuring needs. The RSM team understands your unique operating environment. To find out more about how we can help, reach out to your local RSM adviser today. 

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