Financial Planning for Tax and Wealth Strategies
Tax Planning, Capital Gains and Investment Strategy Advice
Income, investments, super, structures and the timing of a sale can all shape the tax you pay over time. We help you plan those decisions in good time, working alongside your accountant.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Work out what a decision costs you at your marginal rate
- Plan the timing of an investment or business sale
- Build an investment strategy around your timeframe
- Plan super and investments when you live or work overseas, with your accountant
- Look at whether a trust or company still suits you
- Use the concessional cap and any catch-up years available
- Plan how your estate passes on, alongside your solicitor
- Weigh paying down debt against investing
- Work alongside your accountant on tax and structure
- Revisit the tax strategy as the rules change
Who We Help
- Top-rate taxpayers wanting their income to do more
- Anyone selling an asset weighing the timing and the tax on it
- People wanting a tax strategy that actually applies to their situation
- Anyone with a windfall wanting a plan for it while it is still a decision
- Business owners deciding how to take money out of the company
- Long-term investors wanting the mix to suit their timeframe
- Beneficiaries of an estate wanting to make something lasting of it
- Trust and company owners checking the structure still suits what they do
- Clients with an accountant who want the advice and the return to line up
What we advise on
The Tax and Wealth Decisions We Can Help You With
Tax Strategy Through the Year
We’ll work through the tax decisions that have to be made while the year is still running.
By the time a return is prepared, many decisions that could affect the outcome have already been made. Contributions, asset sales, deductible expenses and instalments all carry dates, so we plan ahead with you and work with your accountant on the tax position before those dates pass.
Together, we'll work through:
- How your marginal tax rate may affect what each financial decision is worth to you
- Contributions, and the deadlines that govern when each one counts
- Which financial year a bonus, a sale or a large payment falls into
- Whether bringing forward deductions or deferring income may suit you, confirmed with your accountant in time
- A regular amount put aside through the year for any tax you expect to owe
- Whether private health cover may affect the Medicare levy surcharge at your income
- Whether any PAYG instalments still reflect what you’re likely to owe, with your accountant
- The records your bookkeeper and accountant need from you through the year
Capital Gains and Asset Sales
We can show you what may affect the tax on selling an investment, a property or a business.
The gain itself is only part of the calculation. How long the asset has been held, whose name it’s in, other income in the same financial year and any capital losses carried forward can all affect the outcome. Several of these are settled before a contract is signed, so we plan early with your accountant.
Together, we'll work through:
- How the holding period may affect what is assessed, including the 12-month rule for the CGT discount
- Whose name the asset sits in, and how that may affect the tax
- Which financial year the sale falls in, and whether the timing can be planned
- Capital losses carried forward, and what they can be set against
- What the cost base may include beyond the purchase price, confirmed with your accountant
- Whether contributing part of the proceeds to super suits your position
- What the proceeds are for once they arrive, considered before the sale
- What your accountant will need from the sale, gathered as it happens
Investment Strategy and Asset Allocation
We’ll help you split a portfolio across asset types, and explain what that split may mean for you.
The split between growth and defensive assets is a major influence on long-term returns and risk. How long the money has to work, what it costs to hold and how the portfolio sits alongside your super can all affect results over time. Returns can rise and fall, so we match the mix to your timeframe and comfort with risk.
Together, we'll work through:
- How long this money has to work, which shapes the choices that follow
- How much movement you can live with along the way, agreed before markets test it
- What you’re paying to hold what you hold, all in
- Whether the mix has drifted from what you originally chose, and by how much
- How the portfolio and your super work as a single allocation
- Franking credits, and how they may affect your after-tax return, with your accountant
- Whether income or growth suits your tax position better right now
- When to rebalance, and when leaving the portfolio alone is the better call
Estate and Legacy Planning
We can work through how your assets pass on, and fund the plan your solicitor puts in place.
Estate planning documents are legal work, prepared by your solicitor. Alongside them sit financial questions: who owns what, how super may pass on, which assets may carry a capital gains liability to the next generation, and whether the estate may have enough liquidity without selling the family home.
The financial half of an estate plan:
- Who owns each asset, and whether that ownership does what you intend on death
- Super, which doesn’t automatically form part of your estate and may pass by nomination
- The capital gains position an inheritor may take on with an asset, checked with your accountant
- Liquidity in the estate, and whether a home may need to be sold to settle it
- Whether life cover may help fund an estate plan, based on what the estate may need to pay
- A testamentary trust to discuss with your solicitor, and the tax position it may create for beneficiaries
- Blended family arrangements, where the will and the nominations have to agree
- Working alongside your solicitor, who prepares the documents the strategy relies on
Ownership, Trusts and Company Structures
We’ll explain what changes when an asset is held personally, in a trust or in a company.
Whose name an asset sits in affects how income and gains are taxed, who controls it and what happens to it later. A structure set up for one purpose can outlive it while still carrying annual costs and compliance obligations. We review whether it still suits your plans, with your accountant and solicitor.
Together, we'll work through:
- What the current structure was set up to do, and by whom
- Whether the original purpose still matches what you’re doing now, or has drifted
- What the structure costs each year to run and keep compliant
- How income and gains flow through it, and to whom they land
- Trust distributions, and the resolutions your accountant may need signed before each year ends
- Division 7A, and the rules your accountant applies where a company has lent money to its owners
- What the structure means for passing assets on to the next generation
- Where your solicitor and your accountant need to be in the room
Super as a Tax Structure
We can help you use super as a tax structure rather than defaulting into it.
Contributions are capped and the money is generally preserved until you meet a condition of release, so it’s worth planning deliberately. The concessional cap, carry-forward rules and Division 293 tax can interact, and the outcome depends on your income, total super balance and eligibility.
Together, we'll work through:
- What your employer is already contributing this year, and what room that leaves
- The concessional cap, and how much of it is still available to you
- Whether unused cap amounts from earlier years can be carried forward, subject to your total super balance
- Whether Division 293 tax may apply at your income, and how it affects the tax on contributions
- Whether after-tax contributions suit your position and your total balance
- A spouse contribution, if you have a partner, and the eligibility rules for the tax offset
- What the transfer balance cap means for the balance you’re building now
- How contributing compares with paying down debt using the same dollar
Debt, Deductibility and What to Clear First
We’ll help you decide whether money you can set aside goes to debt or to investing.
The answer depends on the interest rate, whether that interest may be deductible, your marginal rate, how long the money has to work and what you’d do in a year the investment fell. Two households with similar numbers can reasonably reach different conclusions, and we confirm the tax side with your accountant.
Together, we'll work through:
- What each debt costs you after any tax treatment, set out side by side
- Which interest may be deductible and which may not, as confirmed by your accountant
- Whether an accessible buffer should come first, based on your income security and costs
- Whether an offset account is available on your loan and changes the comparison
- How debt recycling works, its risks, and whether it may suit your circumstances
- The order that suits your situation, written down so it’s easier to follow in a busy month
- What changes if interest rates move or your income does, and how the plan flexes
- What you’d do if the investment fell while the debt remained, settled before you start
Your Tax and Wealth, Worked Through Together
Your Marginal Rate
How it may affect each decision, considered before you make it.
Capital Gains Before You Sell
How long it is held, whose name it is in, and which year the contract falls in.
Asset Allocation and Timeframe
How long the money has to work, and what it costs you to hold each year.
Debt, Investing or Super First
Which to clear, what to invest, and what to contribute, in a sensible sequence.
Super as a Tax Structure
The concessional cap, any carry-forward amounts, and what your employer already contributes.
What to Do With a Windfall
A plan for a bonus, an inheritance or a sale, considered before it arrives.
Trusts and Company Structures
Whether the trust or company you hold still suits what you are doing now.
Working With Your Accountant
We sit alongside them and your solicitor rather than duplicating what they do.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
There can come a point where what you keep matters as much as what you earn. At that stage, structure and timing may make a real difference alongside the effort you put in. We’ll look at how your income, assets and plans fit together, and work with your accountant to consider the options available to you. Nothing aggressive and nothing you’d be uncomfortable explaining, just decisions considered in a sensible order and in good time.
What you keep can support the things that matter to you: a home with less owing on it, education costs you’ve planned for, the option to stop work on your own terms. That’s what this work aims to help with. We’ll coordinate with your accountant so the advice and the tax work fit together, and we can review the strategy with you as the rules and your life change, because both tend to keep moving.
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.
Broadly, the capital gain is what you sold the asset for, less its cost base, which can include the costs of buying and selling it.
From there:
- If the asset was held for at least 12 months, individuals and trusts may be eligible for a discount on the gain.
- Capital losses, including any carried forward from earlier years, are generally applied first.
- The remaining net gain is added to your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate.
Ownership and the timing of a sale can make a real difference, so we plan them with you and your accountant before you sell.
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 can, because ownership affects how income is taxed each year, how any gain is taxed and who controls the asset if circumstances change.
Personal ownership is simpler and taxed at your marginal rate. A trust may allow income to be distributed, within the terms of its deed. A company has its own tax rate and its own consequences later on. Super is generally taxed at a lower rate but offers the least access.
The right answer depends on your whole position. We consider the options with you and work with your accountant and solicitor, who advise on and set up the structure.
It may be worth considering when you can afford to set money aside for the long term and the tax difference is meaningful at your income.
Contributions within the caps are generally taxed at a lower rate than income at higher marginal rates, and earnings inside super are taxed differently from earnings in your own name. Those differences can be valuable, depending on your income and balance.
The trade-off is access. The money is preserved until you meet a condition of release, so it may not suit a goal that needs the funds sooner. We can compare it with your other options before you decide.
An online investment platform can be a cost-effective way to buy, hold and report on investments, and the features vary.
It may not bring together what you should hold, in whose name or when to sell, alongside your marginal rate, other income, carried-forward losses and plans for the years ahead. The tax consequence of a trade may not be obvious when you place it.
We can work with the platform you already use. Advice helps with the decisions that sit before the trade.
Ideally before you sign anything, and before you list if you can.
The tax on a sale can be shaped by decisions made beforehand: who owns the asset, how long it’s been held, which financial year the contract falls in, what losses are available, and whether any small business concessions may apply, which your accountant can confirm.
Afterwards, the options narrow to how the proceeds are used. That’s still worth planning carefully, although there’s usually less that can be changed by then.
Of course, and this area carries a lot of jargon, so we explain it in plain terms as we go.
There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Tell us what you earn, what you own and what you’re thinking of doing next. We’ll explain what may apply to your position and what information we’ll need from you.
If one change is the useful answer, that’s what we’ll say.
Who We Help
Advice for All Stages of Life
From first job to retirement, we help you build wealth, protect it, and live well.
Starting Out
First jobs, first home, first super, HECS debt, budgeting and more.
Growing Families
First home buyers, new parents, school fees, single incomes, young families and more.
Medical & Health
Doctors, dentists, pharmacists, allied health, nurses and more.
Professional Services & Tech
Lawyers, accountants, brokers, engineers, consultants and more.
Trades & Business Owners
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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Grow & Protect Your Wealth Today
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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