ADVICE YOU CAN DEPEND ON from someone you can trust

For more than six years, the team at Ruth Annett Chartered Accountant has been helping people living on the Surf Coast manage their finances.

Clients have enjoyed the convenience of having local professionals look after all their accounting and tax needs.

There is no longer any need to travel to the city to get your tax returns lodged or to seek expert advice on your finances.

The service is delivered with a friendly, tailored approach. Ruth’s philosophy is a return to old fashioned service that is personable, rather than a generic one-size-fits-all where you feel like just another number.

“Time is invested in each client, no matter how small, to truly understand what is required in order to provide the best advice.” This is Ruth’s business point of difference.

The focus is on providing business owners with holistic commercial advice and solutions, as well as keeping all compliance obligations up to date. Ruth works with clients through the life cycles of their business from starting up, growth, succession planning to selling the business.

Valued non-business clients are looked after too. Everything from their tax return to personal budgeting to Self- Managed Super Funds are taken care of diligently and efficiently.

In this environment of constant changes in tax and business laws and regulations, it makes sense to seek help from someone you can trust. “Working through your finances with us will help you achieve a far better outcome than doing it on your own.”

Since you can’t access your super until you retire many people tend not to focus on it. But with an ageing population, we can no longer presume the age pension is going to be there to support us in retirement.

Super is still one of the most tax effective vehicles to build wealth. So here’s a few gems that will boost your balance.

Salary sacrifice – When you salary sacrifice, you are contributing part of your pre-tax income into your super fund. These contributions are taxed in the super fund at 15 per cent. If your tax rate is higher than this, it may reduce the income tax you pay.

Personal deductible contributions – These are amounts you contribute to your super fund from your after-tax income. Thanks to a rule change from July 1, employees too can now claim a tax deduction for personal concessional contributions until they turn 75. So if your employer’s super guarantee (9.5 per cent), plus any salary sacrificed contributions, haven’t hit the annual $25,000 cap, you can top up and claim a tax deduction.

Government super co-contribution scheme – If your total income is less than the lower threshold ($38,564 this year) and make personal (after-tax) super contributions of $1,000, you will receive the maximum co-contribution of $500. The co-contribution reduces progressively until it cuts out at the higher threshold ($53,564 this year).

Any advice is general only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs and you should consider whether it is appropriate for you. You should discuss any tax and super strategies with your accountant or financial adviser.