Financial Planning for Musicians and Sound Engineers

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 can be. The ATO treats a person paid to perform music as an employee for super, even with an ABN, an invoice or a one-off booking, so a business paying you to play may have to pay super for you. A fee paid to a partnership, company or trust is different: the payer doesn’t have to pay super, though a company or trust itself may have to.

The ATO says the payer and performer should agree whether a fee includes super or has it on top, and the super goes to the fund either way. Private or domestic engagements can differ too, as the ATO’s harpist example shows. An accountant or the ATO can confirm where you stand, and we can plan your own contributions around what arrives.

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.

They may. The ATO lists sound and audio engineers among those providing services a music performance needs, and treats a person paid for that work as an employee for super, even with an ABN. Its rule also covers services in making a film, tape or disc, or recording content for online streaming. The ATO’s own example is a lighting technician with an ABN, paid by festival promoters, who have to pay super to the technician’s fund.

Payments to a partnership, company or trust you work through are treated differently. An accountant or the ATO can confirm where you stand, and fund statements show what has arrived. We can trace each payer’s super with you and plan what’s yours to add.

Plan it in the order it’s needed. Tour costs can fall due before the fees arrive, so those come first. Then:

• Tax set aside, with an accountant estimating how much
• A buffer for the months after the tour, when bookings may be fewer
• Super, if no business pays it for you on that work
• A goal of your own, such as a deposit or a new instrument

How much goes where, and in what order, is up to you, and it can change from tour to tour. We can build it into your budget with you, so tour money is planned before it’s spent.

It may. The ATO’s income averaging for special professionals can apply to performing artists, composers and some production associates, and an accountant can confirm whether it applies to you. Performing artists include people who use musical or other personal skills in the presence of an audience, or who perform or appear on a tape or disc. Production associates use artistic rather than technical skills in a production, such as a musical director or a producer.

Royalties from copyright of a musical work can count as professional income. Once an accountant has worked out where you stand, we can plan with you around the tax result.

Fair Work says award coverage can be based on the employer’s industry and the work you do within that industry, on your occupation, or on both. One award covers employers in the live performance industry, including the operation of venues used for performances, and their employees in the classifications the award lists. Another covers the broadcasting, recorded entertainment and cinema industry in the same way. An enterprise agreement, if your employer has one, can apply instead.

Under the live performance award, for example, a casual musician is paid by the hour with a minimum payment for each call. Fair Work’s Pay and Conditions Tool is the place to check what applies to you, and we plan with you from the pay you receive.

Your manager or booking agent works on the career: finding work, agreeing fees and planning where your music goes next. That work matters, and a financial adviser doesn’t replace it.

Our part is planning for the money that career brings home. That can mean super from each payer, income protection for illness or injury, tax planned with an accountant, a buffer for quieter months and goals such as a home. The two can work side by side, and we can plan with you around the bookings your manager or agent brings in.

Yes. A retirement plan for music work can start with what you’d like your later working years to look like: more teaching, more studio work, fewer late nights or a clean stop. Each choice can change how long your super and savings need to last.

If some of your years were self-employed, we can look at what your own contributions could add before you stop. We’d plan income from super and savings first, treating any royalties as a bonus rather than the base. 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. The first conversation looks at how your music work runs today, from a first paid booking to a full teaching diary or a studio of your own.

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.

A rough picture of your year helps: who pays you, roughly how much, and what super statements or policies you have. Payslips, a tax return or a few invoices are plenty to start. We can talk by video or phone, or in person at one of our offices.