Now, during the middle of the busy tax season, WSC Group aim to maintain a high level of communication with our clients and complete your work in a timely manner. We have implemented new procedures in recent years to ensure we maintain this high level of communication, such as giving you a quick phone call after your return is completed – so you get a phone call from one of our accountants in the coming weeks, it will likely be to provide you with details of your completed return and to discuss the outcome.

Some developments around WSC Group which I would like to highlight this month:

FINANCIAL PLANNING

Our financial planning team have been busy meeting with our clients and improving their financial positions. Due to demand for their services, we have increased the team adding, Peter Easonas a dedicated para-planner to assist our financial planners, Jason Atkins and Jade Brindle.

Do not forget that as a valued client our financial planning team will waive the initial meeting fee of $200 + GST to have an initial meeting to review your affairs and offer any suggestions.

Some examples of how we have achieved great results for our clients follows:

1. Holistic Approach: Marrying up investment properties, superannuation and taking the time to understand your total financial position ensuring you are on the right track.

2. Personal Insurance: We know that some of the major banks have been receiving poor publicity due to issues at claim time and our team has the experience to ensure this does not happen to you. One example is the definition of “any” vs“own” occupation on total and permanent disability (TPD) policies held within superannuation. On the event of an incident, clients with “any” definition run the risk of not being paid out as the policy insurer could argue that the policyholder could still perform “any” occupation if not their own. Our advisers will make sure you have the right level of cover, to protect you in the event that you suffer illness or injury and ensure you are in the best position possible while dealing with challenging circumstances.

3. Long-term strategy: I would encourage all of our clients to start thinking about their long-term strategy at 40 years of age and importantly take action. With the reducing superannuation contribution limits, it is now becoming more difficult to build up superannuation, meaning that we need to have a proactive approach earlier on. I have seen, first-hand, how our advisers have made a difference in many of our clients’ lives and the value they provide.

4. Tax benefits of insurance cover: We have structured many clients to have their income protection outside of super. This means that they have received a tax deduction in their personal name as opposed to a 15% tax deduction in their super. Conversely, having life insurance in your super can assist you from a cash flow point of view.

Some other points to be aware of when thinking about your financial situation:

1. Take the time to have a budget and understand your cash flow to identify areas of surplus. Any surplus you do have could be used towards your long-term strategy and have significant impact the earlier you start.

2. To obtain TPD, life insurance and income protection insurance is relatively cheap when you are younger, so try to start a good habit earlier on.

3. Make sure that you have your superannuation managed in some form. WSC Group manage even relatively small balances and as a part of this, we can compare the returns from your designated fund with other funds in the marketplace.

4. Make sure that you have a regularly updated Will and Power of Attorney. We are still coming across a number of clients who have not updated this in a number of years so are happy to refer you to a local solicitor to get these important items updated and/or prepared.

ATTENTION BUSINESS CLIENTS

We now have the ability to prepare real time reports, linking with your cloud-based accounting package on Xero or Quickbooks.

We have started to roll this out to our business clients and have received great feedback in relation to the financial measurements of their business and what they have been able to take away from these discussions. If you would like a demonstration of how this works, we would be more than happy to provide you with one to show how this can assist you grow your business.

CLIENT PORTAL

We now have over 200 clients subscribed to our Client Portal and have an increasing number of clients uploading their details to this secure portal for tax time. Please keep providing feedback on this service.

We are more than happy to sign you up to this free service should this be of interest to you.

WSC GROUP PROPERTY TAX TOOLS APP

Recently we released our App for free download.

Some features of this app:

1. Log book:You can now record your business mileage using the app and download at the end of the tax year toemail to your accountant. I strongly recommend using this to record your business mileage (or get your employees to complete it!).

2. Receipt Manager: If you are always having difficulty with your receipts fading or being misplaced, our receipt manager module allows you to photograph your receipts and record these as you go during the year. The days of the old shoe box are gone! I encourage you to use this to record your receipts.

3. Videos: We have also created a link to our recorded webinars through our app. These are also available on our YouTube channel and on the WSC Group website. These contain our most recent 11 webinars. We are always happy to take feedback on webinar topics which you think would be relevant.

AUDIT SHIELD

Most of you would have already received a copy of our audit shield invoice. If you are worried about an audit by the Tax Office, or other Government agency, I would recommend that you take up this insurance offer.

Particularly for our business clients and property investor clients, the cost of an audit can be quite expensive. For clients who have had the unfortunate experience of getting audited, this has given them peace of mind when having this cover in place.