Most people think tax planning happens at the end of the financial year.
It doesn’t.
By the time July arrives, most of the meaningful decisions are already gone. Super contribution deadlines have passed, trust resolutions should already be in place, and opportunities to structure income or prepare for a future business sale are often lost. The best tax planning happens before 30 June, not after it.
That is why this time of year matters.
A good tax planning conversation is not just about reducing tax for this year. It is about making sure your business, your wealth structures, and your long-term plans are aligned before the window closes. For many clients, that means looking at four key areas right now: tax planning generally, super contributions, business succession, and family trust year-end preparation.
What is tax planning?
Tax planning is not a scramble for last-minute deductions. It is the process of reviewing your position before year end so you can make informed decisions while there is still time to act.
For business owners, that can mean reviewing profit, timing of income and expenses, super contributions, entity structures, trust distributions, and whether larger strategic issues need attention before 30 June. The point is not just to lodge a return correctly. The point is to make better decisions before the year is locked in.
Maximising super in 2026
Super is one of the biggest year-end planning opportunities, but only if you act before 30 June.
For 2025–26, the basic concessional contributions cap is $30,000. If your total super balance was less than $500,000 at 30 June of the previous financial year, you may also be able to use unused concessional cap amounts carried forward from up to the previous 5 years. That is why many clients should be checking their available cap space now rather than assuming they have missed their chance.
For after-tax contributions, the non-concessional cap for 2025–26 is $120,000. Depending on your total super balance, the bring-forward rules may allow you to contribute more than one year’s cap, but if your balance is at or above the relevant transfer balance cap threshold, your non-concessional cap can be nil. For 2025–26, the general transfer balance cap is $2 million.
There may also be an opportunity for spouse contribution strategies. The spouse super tax offset can be worth up to $540, and it phases out once your spouse’s income exceeds $37,000, disappearing at $40,000, subject to the usual contribution and balance rules.
In other words: if super is on your radar this year, now is the time to review it.
Will you ever sell your business?
Most business owners do not think seriously about selling until they are ready to leave.
That is usually far too late.
If there is any chance you will sell, transition, or restructure your business in the future, the tax consequences should be part of the conversation now. Australia’s small business CGT concessions can be extremely valuable where the rules are satisfied, including concessions such as the 15-year exemption, 50% active asset reduction, retirement exemption, and rollover. But those concessions depend on eligibility conditions, ownership, structure, and the nature of the assets involved.
The earlier you start planning, the more options you usually have. Waiting until the deal is already on the table often means you are working with whatever structure and tax outcome you have inherited. Starting early gives you time to think about succession, ownership, asset protection, and whether your current structure supports an eventual exit.
Preparing your family trust for year end
If you have a family trust, year-end planning is not optional.
Trustees of discretionary trusts generally need to make distribution resolutions by 30 June to ensure beneficiaries are presently entitled to trust income for that year. Where capital gains or franked distributions are being streamed, the deed and the resolutions need to support that outcome properly. If no beneficiary is specifically entitled to streamed amounts, those amounts may be allocated proportionately based on present entitlements to trust income, and the trustee may be taxed on amounts to which no beneficiary is specifically or presently entitled.
The ATO’s guidance is clear that trustees should be reviewing the trust deed, the wording of resolutions, streaming provisions, and whether the records created after 30 June can genuinely evidence a resolution made by that date. This is one of the clearest examples of why leaving it until after year end can create real problems.
The real message before 30 June
EOFY planning is not just about this year’s tax bill.
It is about getting ahead of decisions that affect your super, your family wealth, your business structure, and your long-term future. The clients who get the best outcomes are usually not the ones who call in July. They are the ones who start the conversation before 30 June, while something can still be done.
If you want clarity before the financial year closes, now is the time to book a tax planning meeting.
