Financial Planning for Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Mechanics

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.

It depends on who employs you and where the work is done. Awards that can apply include:

• The Electrical, Electronic and Communications Contracting Award, if you work for an electrical contractor.
• The Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award, which can cover businesses that repair, maintain or install air-conditioning plant and refrigerators.
• The Building and Construction General On-site Award, which pays a weekly allowance for on-site air-conditioning or refrigeration work.

An enterprise agreement may apply instead, and Fair Work can confirm your coverage. We can plan your budget, super and cover around the pay rules that apply to you.

A refrigerant trading authorisation is needed by any individual or business that buys, stores or sells fluorocarbon refrigerant. It is issued by the Australian Refrigeration Council on behalf of the Australian Government, and it comes with conditions, including:

• Equipment such as leak detectors, vacuum pumps and recovery units.
• Quarterly records of refrigerant bought, recovered and sold.
• Leak checks on refrigerant containers at least every quarter.
• A risk management plan.

The kit, the records and the fee all need a place in the budget. We can plan your cashflow, cover and super around the move, with an accountant advising on the tax side.

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.

Work in this trade can be busier in the hot months, so a budget that starts from a quieter month can be easier to keep to all year. One approach:

• List the regular costs you’d need to meet in a quiet month.
• Run those costs on the income you can rely on.
• Treat any overtime and call-out pay as extra, building a buffer first.
• Put licence renewals, kit and any tax set-aside on the calendar.

No single buffer suits everyone. We can work out with you a buffer that suits your costs, and a plan for any extra pay that busier months can bring.

Moneysmart says income protection usually bases the benefit on your annual earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, and each policy has its own definition of the income it insures.

For a year with busier and quieter stretches, that means earnings across the whole period usually count, rather than one busy month. Whether overtime counts, and how income is worked out if you’re self-employed, comes down to that definition.

We can compare how suitable policies would treat your earnings, and help you choose a benefit and waiting period that suit you. The insurer decides the terms at application.

An online quote for a trade insurance bundle can be a quick way to compare business cover such as public liability, tools and vehicle insurance, and a general insurance broker can also help with it.

Personal cover is a separate decision. Advice looks at income protection, TPD and life cover for your own duties, how earnings that change through the year may be treated, whether cover sits inside or outside super, and how it fits with any cover you already hold.

We can work through those questions with you first. Any new cover is subject to the insurer’s assessment.

The ATO’s guidance for employees says you can’t claim the cost of the initial licence, permit or certificate you need to get a job, but you can claim the cost of renewing it to keep doing your work. Different rules apply if you’re self-employed.

Whether you can claim a particular cost, such as an authorisation fee or training for newer refrigerants, is for an accountant to confirm when they prepare your return.

We can plan these recurring costs into your budget and wider tax strategy with you.

Yes. Air conditioning and refrigeration work can be busier in summer, so we can help you plan super contributions around the year. We can also look at staying on the tools, moving into estimating, service management or training, and how the plan changes if you choose to step back from installs earlier.

If you’re self-employed, that can include your own super contributions if no business pays them. If you own a refrigeration business, we can plan for selling it and for not selling it. You can read more about our retirement advice.

We’re a national service, so you can meet with us by phone or video from anywhere in Australia. We also have offices in three cities:

• Sydney: offices in Sydney CBD, Parramatta, Seven Hills, Ingleburn and Narellan, servicing areas including the City of Sydney, Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, North Shore, Northern Beaches, Sutherland Shire, Blacktown, Liverpool, Campbelltown and all surrounding suburbs.
• Melbourne: our St Kilda Road office, servicing areas including the City of Melbourne, Port Phillip, Boroondara, Monash, Casey, Wyndham and all surrounding suburbs.
• Brisbane: our Eagle Street office, servicing areas including Brisbane City, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and all surrounding suburbs.

Yes. Apprentices on a trainee licence, installers and business owners all start the same way, with a conversation about your work and your goals.

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 to have on hand: pay records from a busy month and a quieter one, a recent super statement, any insurance policies and the type of refrigerant handling licence you hold.