Financial Planning for Sole Traders
Financial Advice Empowering Sole Traders to Build Wealth and Freedom
As a sole trader, you don’t have to pay yourself super, there’s no paid sick leave and the business runs in your own name. We help you plan for all three, from your first year on your own to retirement.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Set up regular super contributions to yourself, with the notice of intent planned for any tax deduction
- Review any cover in super from a past job, and what it would pay if you couldn’t work
- Weigh income protection and a waiting period for work with no paid sick leave
- Build a cash buffer for your first years of working for yourself
- Plan what a move to a company would change for super, cover and cashflow, with an accountant on the structure
- Plan cashflow for a first employee’s wages and super on each payday
- Plan which name your savings, investments and any property are held in, alongside an accountant and a solicitor
- Build a retirement plan from super and savings that doesn’t rely on selling the business
Who We Help
- People leaving a salary to start working for themselves
- New sole traders in their first years on an ABN
- Freelancers and platform workers including delivery and rideshare drivers
- Couples in business together with two incomes and two super balances
- Home, market and mobile businesses run from a spare room, a stall, a studio or a van
- Sole traders weighing a company as profit and the business grow
- First-time employers taking on their first staff member
- Sole traders winding down with no business to sell at the end
What we advise on
How Our Advice Works for Sole Traders
Superannuation
While you’re busy running the business, how could you keep paying into your own super?
A regular amount you choose can help your super build alongside the business, through quieter months and good ones.
We’ll plan with you a regular amount to pay into your own super, with an accountant confirming any tax deduction.
Without an employer paying super for you, Moneysmart says it’s up to you to make contributions yourself. On a contract, a business may still have to pay super if you’re paid mainly for your labour. To claim a deduction, you give your fund a notice of intent in the approved form by the day you lodge that year’s return or the end of the following income year, whichever comes first, and receive its acknowledgment before you claim.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A standing transfer from your account to your fund on a set day, topped up once the year’s profit is known
- A notice of intent sent and acknowledged before you roll over or combine that account, so the notice stays valid
- The government co-contribution, open only to eligible earners and lost on any amount you deduct, weighed against the deduction with an accountant
- The indexed concessional cap, which also counts any employer super from a job you hold alongside the business
- Concessional cap you didn’t use in early years of trading, which can carry forward up to five years if you’re eligible
- Your tax file number held by your fund, since without it personal contributions may be refused or taxed more
- Running a business as a partnership, where each partner is responsible for their own super and both balances are planned
- A single notice of intent for the year’s contributions, and a separate notice for each fund you pay into
Personal Insurance & Protection
How could part of your own pay continue if illness or injury kept you from the business for a while?
Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, so household bills can still be paid.
We can weigh income protection, life cover and TPD with you, and look at any cover you hold through super.
Moneysmart says income protection usually replaces a percentage of your pre-tax income and bases the benefit on your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, so an uneven year may affect it. The insurer sets the terms and decides any claim.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Old-job super accounts and the cover in each, set against your needs as a sole trader
- Income protection held outside super, where Moneysmart says premiums are generally a tax deduction, with an accountant confirming yours
- A waiting period set against the weeks your savings could meet the bills, with its effect on the premium compared
- A good year followed by a slower one, and how a policy that looks back at earlier earnings may treat each
- Life cover and TPD weighed against debts held in your own name, since a sole trader’s business debts are personal
- Any cover a lender asks for as part of a loan, weighed with your other cover while a broker arranges the loan
- Trauma cover held outside super, since new trauma cover can’t be held inside super, the rule since 1 July 2014
- Liability cover for injury to a customer or damage to a customer’s property, which is general insurance arranged separately
Cashflow & Financial Wellbeing
Could paying yourself a set amount from the business make each month easier to plan?
Paying yourself a set amount, with a buffer for slower months, can make bills predictable and let good months add to savings.
We’ll set up with you a regular amount to pay yourself, and a buffer for slower months.
Moneysmart suggests paying yourself a wage and keeping separate bank accounts, so business spending doesn’t get mixed up with your own. Being self-employed also means no paid holidays or sick leave, so money kept aside for the unexpected matters more. We can build the household budget on the amount you pay yourself, with the rest set aside for tax, savings and your goals.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A buffer saved before leaving a salary, if you’re still employed, to meet household costs through the first months of trading
- A set amount paid to yourself on the same day each fortnight or month, and left unchanged after a big week
- Separate business and personal accounts, as Moneysmart suggests, so what the business earned and spent is easy to see
- PAYG instalments, which the ATO may ask for once the business grows, given a place in the budget before they arrive
- Spare cash kept available in the business, compared with paying it into super, where it’s preserved until a condition of release
- A first employee’s wages and super, which from 1 July 2026 must generally reach their fund within 7 business days of payday
- Quiet seasons in your line of work, planned for in the budget from the takings of busier months
- Income that leans on one client or one platform, and a buffer sized for that work slowing or stopping
Tax & Wealth Strategies
Working for yourself, how could you plan for tax well before the year ends?
Setting tax aside as income comes in can turn the year-end bill into an amount you’ve already planned for.
Together, we’ll plan the tax side of working for yourself, alongside an accountant who prepares and lodges your return.
Ryker’s financial advisers plan tax and set tax structure and strategy, working alongside your accountant, who prepares and lodges your return. As a sole trader, the ATO says all your income goes on your individual tax return, and there is no separate business tax return. A company is different: its income and assets belong to it, so a move to a company changes how you’re paid.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A share of each payment moved to a tax account on the day it arrives, with the share estimated by an accountant
- Registering for GST once turnover reaches the ATO’s threshold, or from the start for ride-sourcing, with an accountant advising
- A deductible super contribution, which lowers your taxable income, while your fund generally pays contributions tax on it
- When a company could suit as profit grows, decided with an accountant who advises on the structure and its running costs
- Becoming a company director, where the company must pay super for eligible workers, directors included, and its money is its own
- Director penalty rules, under which directors can be liable for certain tax and super debts of the company
- Money taken from the business for personal use, which the ATO says isn’t deductible, kept apart from business costs
- Partnership income, shared as your agreement sets out, or equally between partners if there’s no written agreement
Financial Planning & Advice
When you and the business share one name, how do you plan for both at once?
Planning the household and the business side by side can help each decision support the goals you set for both.
We can build a financial plan, or Statement of Advice, for the household and the business, reviewed as your set-up changes.
The ATO says a sole trader is legally responsible for all aspects of the business, including debts and losses incurred in running it. That puts household savings and business risk side by side, so which name assets are held in is worth planning with an accountant and a solicitor. We can set review points with you for the changes that reshape the plan, such as a first hire or a partner joining.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Personal liability for business debts, and where your savings and any home sit beside the risks of trading
- Which name assets are held in, planned with an accountant and a solicitor before anything is moved or bought
- A partner joining the business, with two incomes, two super balances and one plan for the household
- Your first years on your own, planned around income that is still settling, then a later plan once trading has a pattern
- Growth decisions, such as new equipment or premises, weighed against paying yourself more or saving outside the business
- Review points for leaving a job, a first employee or a move to a company, each changing super, cover and tax
- A holiday or a break from the work, with the weeks without income costed into the plan before you book
- A move back to employment, if you ever choose one, and what the change would mean for pay, super and cover
Retirement & Aged Care
Beyond the business, what kind of life would you like when you’re ready to stop?
Super and savings built beside the business can provide a retirement income, and help you decide when to stop.
We’ll go through with you a retirement plan that doesn’t rely on selling the business.
When the work depends on you, there may be little to sell when you stop, so super and savings outside the business can become the main source of retirement income. Preservation age is 60 for anyone born from 1 July 1964, and super can generally only be accessed once you meet a condition of release, such as ceasing employment at 60 or over.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A target for super and savings by the age you’d like to stop, reviewed each year as trading changes
- Stopping before super can be accessed, if you’d like to, with savings planned to fund the years in between
- Fewer days or fewer clients in later years, with the income each stage could give alongside super
- The 15-year exemption for an active asset owned 15 years, on retiring at 55 or over or permanent incapacity, checked with an accountant
- The CGT retirement exemption, with a lifetime limit and a super payment if you’re under 55, worked through with an accountant
- The four small business CGT concessions, which continue after the CGT change for gains accruing after 1 July 2027
- Clients, equipment or goodwill passed on to someone else, if there’s something to hand over when you stop
- A binding nomination on your super, if your fund offers one, which it must follow while valid, alongside a will kept current with a solicitor
Property Investment Advice
Without a payslip to show, how do you plan a home purchase around income that varies?
Basing a purchase on the income you can rely on can show the steps towards a home and what each one needs.
We can look with you at a home or investment purchase on income that varies, with a broker arranging any loan.
Lenders decide how they assess self-employed income, and a broker compares lenders and arranges any loan. We look at the order of your plans with you: the deposit, the buffer, the cover and the repayments a slower month would need to carry, before you apply for any loan. Borrowing to invest can magnify losses as well as gains, and the loan must still be repaid if values fall.
Together, we’ll work through:
- How lenders view a short trading history, with a broker comparing what each one asks for before you apply
- A year of lower taxable profit, and what it may mean for borrowing, discussed with an accountant and a broker first
- Working from home, and what a home office may mean for tax if you sell, confirmed with an accountant
- Slower seasons of trading, with repayments tested against what the business paid you in its leanest months
- A deposit built from the regular amount you pay yourself, with business takings and tax money kept out of it
- Finance on a work vehicle or tools held in your own name, counted beside home loan repayments when the budget is tested
- Whose name an investment goes in, yours alone or shared, set with an accountant and a solicitor before you sign
- A residential rental purchased after 12 May 2026, which from 1 July 2027 can only be negatively geared as a new build
Your Sole Trader Finances, Worked Through Together
Your Own Super Contributions
A regular amount to your super, planned around what the business can spare each month.
A Deduction Planned in Time
Your notice of intent and the fund’s acknowledgment planned around your return, with an accountant.
Cover After Leaving a Job
Any cover in an old super account reviewed against what you’d need working for yourself.
Income Protection on Your Own
A policy and waiting period weighed for work with no paid sick leave behind it.
A Buffer for Uneven Months
Savings sized to the slower months, beside a set amount paid to you each month.
The Company Question
What a move to a company would change in super, cover and cashflow, with an accountant on structure.
Your First Employee
Wages and super on each payday, planned into the budget before a first hire.
Retirement Without a Sale
Super and savings planned as retirement income for when there may be no business to sell.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
Choosing to work for yourself often means doing every job at once: the work itself, the customers, the books, and planning that often gets left until late at night. We’ll take the time to understand what you want from the business and from the rest of your life. Then we can help you plan for the things an employer would usually look after, so you can keep doing the work you chose with the years ahead in view.
For many people, the reason for going out on their own sits outside work: more time with family, choosing their own hours, or building something that is theirs. We’ll work with you on a plan that keeps those reasons at its centre, for you and for anyone who shares your goals. Whether you stay small, take on staff or step back one day, we can review the plan with you at each step, with the reasons you started always part of it.
Every financial decision impacts the next
Your Financial Life Is Connected
Great advice starts with understanding the bigger picture. Every stage of life presents new opportunities and challenges, from buying property and changing careers to growing your family, planning for retirement and protecting what matters most. At Ryker, we help connect every piece of your financial world into one clear strategy.
Your
Wealth
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
If you’re eligible, you can claim a deduction for personal super contributions until you turn 75. The ATO sets out the steps: you give your fund a notice of intent in the approved form, and the fund sends you an acknowledgment. The notice must reach the fund by the day you lodge that year’s return or the end of the following income year, whichever comes first.
A notice given after you’ve rolled over or withdrawn your whole account isn’t valid, so it comes before any move between funds. A deducted contribution isn’t eligible for a government co-contribution, and your fund generally pays tax on it.
An accountant confirms the deduction on your return. We can plan the amount and timing of your contributions with you.
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.
It helps to plan the move while a salary is still coming in. Points worth working through:
- A buffer for the first months, before regular income from the business arrives.
- Any cover in your super, since Moneysmart suggests checking whether moving from employee to self-employed affects it.
- Regular super contributions of your own, since your business doesn’t have to pay super for you.
- Income protection, since being self-employed means no paid sick leave.
- Money set aside for tax, which generally isn’t withheld from business income.
We can work through each point with you, with an accountant advising on the tax side.
It depends on what the business may need, your other goals and your tax position. Moneysmart describes super as a tax-efficient way of saving money to live on when you stop working, and personal contributions can be deductible if you’re eligible. Money in super is generally preserved until you meet a condition of release, so it can’t be drawn on in a slow season.
Money kept available can meet quiet months, tax bills or a first employee’s wages. We can weigh both with you, with an accountant confirming the tax.
Moving from sole trader to a company changes how you’re paid and what belongs to you. The ATO says a company is a separate legal entity, and its income and assets belong to it, not its shareholders. A company must pay super for eligible workers, including directors, and there may be tax consequences if you use the company’s money for private purposes. Directors can also be liable for certain tax and super debts of the company under the director penalties rules.
An accountant advises on whether a company suits you and on the structure itself. We can plan with you what the change means for your super, cover and household cashflow.
Buying direct from an insurer can be straightforward, and you can compare features yourself.
Advice looks at the decisions around the policy: how it treats income that changes from year to year, which waiting period your savings could cover, whether cover sits inside or outside super, and how it fits with any cover you already hold. Moneysmart says premiums for cover outside super are generally a tax deduction, and an accountant can confirm yours.
We can work through those decisions with you first, then compare suitable options. The insurer sets the terms and decides any claim.
When the work depends on you, there may be little to sell when you stop. Retirement can then be built on super and savings outside the business, so the plan starts with what those could provide, and by when.
Preservation age is 60 for anyone born from 1 July 1964, and super can generally only be accessed once you meet a condition of release, such as ceasing employment at 60 or over. If you do have something to sell, small business CGT concessions such as the 15-year exemption and the retirement exemption may apply, with an accountant confirming whether you’re eligible.
We can set a target with you and review it each year as the business changes.
Yes. Whether you’re still planning the move or have been trading on your own for years, the conversation starts with where things are now.
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 have with you: your last tax return, a recent super statement, details of any cover you hold, and a rough idea of a month’s income and costs. Meetings can be in person or online.
Who We Help
Advice for All Stages of Life
From first job to retirement, we help you build wealth, protect it, and live well.
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First jobs, first home, first super, HECS debt, budgeting and more.
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First home buyers, new parents, school fees, single incomes, young families and more.
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Doctors, dentists, pharmacists, allied health, nurses and more.
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Lawyers, accountants, brokers, engineers, consultants and more.
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Electricians, plumbers, builders, sole traders, franchisees and more.
Corporate & Executive
Executives, senior managers, directors, board members and more.
Public Sector & Defence
Police, firefighters, paramedics, ADF personnel, teachers and more.
Approaching Retirement
Pre-retirees, transition to retirement, Age Pension, aged care, estate planning and more.
Other Stages
Any income, any stage, career changers, separation, second opinions and more.
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Whatever’s on your mind, we’re here to help. You’ll speak with an authorised financial adviser who’ll listen first and get to know what matters to you.
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