Financial Planning for Commercial Fishers

We’re invested in your long-term success. What we do is personal, and we take it personally.

Your financial decisions connect, so we consider the parts of your financial life that are relevant to the advice you need:

• Property & Investing
• Career & Income
• Tax Strategy
• Insurance & Protecting Your Family
• Super & SMSF
• Wealth & Investments
• Life Events & Changes
• Business & Wealth
• Legacy & Future Wealth
• Retirement Planning

This is how we help you make decisions today with your longer-term goals in view.

Everybody’s situation is different, so we listen first, understand what matters to you and explain your options clearly before we make a recommendation.

The ATO lists fishing permits and quotas among statutory licences, and says any dealing in one has capital gains tax consequences. A sale can bring a capital gain or loss, and small business CGT concessions may be available if you meet their conditions. Leasing out quota brings income over time rather than a lump sum, and an accountant can confirm how it’s taxed.

For gains accruing after 1 July 2027, indexation and a 30% minimum tax generally replace the 50% CGT discount, and the small business CGT concessions continue. We can plan what the proceeds or lease income could do for you. This is general information that doesn’t take into account your goals, finances or needs, so consider whether it suits you before acting on it.

Your accountant and financial adviser bring different expertise to the same decisions. Your accountant can advise on tax reporting, structures and consequences; we help you plan how cashflow, debt, super, investments and protection work towards your goals. We can coordinate before important decisions.

What an accountant does

• Prepares and lodges tax returns, BAS and financial statements
• Advises on tax structures such as companies, trusts and partnerships
• Manages bookkeeping, payroll and ATO compliance
• Provides tax advice on the consequences of a transaction

What a financial adviser does

• Sets a long term strategy across retirement, investing and cash flow
• Builds wealth from early in a working life, starting with cash flow, a first home and super
• Recommends specific super funds, investments and personal insurance
• Operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence, which is required to give personal advice on financial products
• Handles retirement planning, Centrelink and aged care strategy, and estate planning considerations

Professional roles and authorisations matter. We provide financial advice within our authorisations and work with your accountant for specialist tax advice and lodgements.

Where they work together

• Tax position. Your accountant confirms your marginal rate, deductions and carried forward losses, which shapes decisions on super contributions, investment structures and the timing of asset sales.
• Business and entity structures. Your accountant advises on the structure itself and your financial adviser works within it for investments, insurance and succession planning.
• Cash flow. Your accountant’s figures can help us understand what’s available for debt repayment, protection and longer-term goals.
• Before key decisions. We can coordinate with your accountant on contributions, asset sales and other material choices in time to consider relevant tax consequences.

Yes, if you’re eligible. The ATO counts fishing as primary production, and farm management deposits are open to individuals, including partners and trust beneficiaries, but not to companies. A deposit is generally deductible when made and assessable income when withdrawn, and one withdrawn within 12 months generally isn’t deductible unless an exception applies.

One exception doesn’t fit a business that only fishes: early access for severe rainfall deficiency requires that you’re not solely carrying on commercial fishing. The exception for an applicable natural disaster is separate. A buffer for a poor season is worth planning without the drought exception in mind.

An accountant confirms your eligibility and the tax, and we can weigh deposits beside super and savings with you.

It depends on the arrangement. The ATO says a business may have to pay super for a contractor who is paid mainly for their labour, paid for their own labour and skills rather than for a result, and can’t delegate the work, even if they have an ABN.

How that test applies to a share of the catch on your boat is for an accountant or the ATO to confirm. Once it’s clear, we can plan any super, along with the share payments, into the business’s cashflow. If you crew for a share and no super is paid for you, we can plan contributions of your own.

A broker’s valuation or recent trade prices can show what a licence or quota might sell for, which is useful when you’re weighing an offer. A valuation prices the asset, so it isn’t designed to set out what the money could do for you afterwards.

Advice works through that part: what you’d live on, whether selling or leasing suits your plans, tax timing with an accountant, super, cover and the household. We can work through it with you before you decide.

Licences and quota can generally be transferred within the rules of the fishery, with the fisheries regulator handling the transfer itself. Three other things come with it:

• Capital gains tax, since a transfer is a dealing in the licence, with an accountant confirming the tax.
• The Age Pension, as Services Australia may treat a transfer for less than its value as a gift, and amounts above the gifting free areas count for 5 years.
• Fairness to anyone else in the family, which a will and any agreements a lawyer prepares can reflect.

We can plan the order and timing with you, including income for whoever steps back.

Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period if illness or injury stops you working. Many policies base the benefit on your earnings in the 12 months before the illness or injury, so a poor season can lower it, and each policy has its own definition of disability.

When you apply, the insurer asks about your health, occupation and duties, such as deck work and time at sea, and answering with reasonable care matters. An application can be offered on standard terms, with a premium loading, with an exclusion for a named condition, deferred for a period, or declined. The insurer decides. We can compare options with you before you apply.

Yes. The first conversation starts from where you are now, whether that’s crewing for a share, running your own boat or thinking about stepping back.

There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first.

Useful things to bring: your last two tax returns, licence and any quota details, any loan statements, super statements, details of any cover you hold and a will if you have one. We can meet in person or online.