Small Business Tax Checklist by Entity Type

A small business tax checklist combines records every business needs with the extra items for its entity type. Send each client the common list below, their entity block and any payroll questions that apply. Request trust and loan records before their deadlines.

Records Every Business Client Sends at Year End

Ask every business client for records covering the income year, including accounts that closed during it. Access to the accounting file helps you reconcile transactions, but it cannot answer every year-end question.

Copy this common list into each client’s request:

• Statements for every business bank, loan and credit card account, showing the balance at the income year’s end.
• Access to the accounting file, with bank reconciliations completed through year end.
• Copies of the BAS lodged for the year and any ATO correspondence, including amended assessments or payment arrangements.
• Stock on hand at year end, with quantities, valuation workings and obsolete stock identified.
• Lists of debtors and creditors at year end, including disputed debts and amounts the business cannot recover.
• Prepaid expenses and expenses incurred but still unpaid, with invoices and the periods they cover.
• Invoices for assets bought, including installation costs and when each asset was ready for use.
• Details of assets sold or scrapped, with sale proceeds, disposal costs and supporting records.
• Finance and hire purchase contracts, together with repayment statements.
• Confirmation of any entity change or business purchase or sale during the year. Record whether GST registration started or stopped too.

Ask the client to identify private spending and transfers between related entities. For a group, start with an entity structure chart so each account and asset belongs to the right entity.

A small business tax deductions checklist needs invoices and evidence of business use. An asset invoice alone does not decide its deduction. Keep acquisition and first-use records so you can apply the depreciation rules for the relevant income year.

Sole Traders

The sole trader’s business income and deductions go into the business schedule of their individual tax return. Send the individual tax return checklist alongside this business block, even when another staff member prepares the personal return.

Add these items to the common list:

• ABN income records, issued invoices and receipts from cash sales or online payment services.
• Car records supporting the claimed business use, including travel records, a logbook where applicable and expense receipts.
• Home business records showing how the space is used, the expense calculation and the bills supporting it.
• Personal super contributions the client wants to deduct, with the fund’s acknowledgement of their notice of intent.
• Details of any other employment or business activity during the year.

Ask whether the income mainly rewards the client’s own skills or labour. Collect the contracts and the income earned from each client, including their associates. Ask who supplies equipment, bears the cost of fixing defects and receives payment for a result.

These answers help you assess personal services income and the results test. The ATO’s personal services income ruling explains how the rules apply. Income concentrated with one client needs attention before you assume the other personal services business tests are available.

For a business loss, obtain turnover, earlier years’ results and the client’s other income. Include reportable fringe benefits, reportable super contributions and net investment losses. The non-commercial loss rules can defer the loss instead of allowing an offset against salary or other income.

Partnerships

An ordinary business partnership lodges its own return and pays no income tax on its net income. Each partner reports their share of net income or loss in their own return. Company treatment can apply to corporate limited partnerships.

Request this partnership block:

• The partnership agreement and amendments, including changes to profit and loss shares.
• Each partner’s name, TFN and share of the partnership result, collected through the practice’s secure document channel.
• Capital contributions, drawings and the closing account balance for each partner.
• Details of all payments to partners and how the accounting file records them.
• Confirmation of whether a partner joined or left, with the agreement and effective timing of the change.

A partner’s salary is generally an allocation of profit or drawings, not a deductible employee wage. Reconcile those payments before accepting the wages total in the accounting file.

Do not treat a year with no sales as an automatic exemption from lodging. A partnership carrying on a business can still have a return obligation without income. The 2026 lodgment instrument sets out the obligations and exceptions.

A partner change can require a new partnership registration or permit a continuing reconstituted partnership. Establish which applies before retaining the ABN, TFN and GST registration. The ATO’s entity registration guidance describes the continuity conditions.

Send partnership requests early. Each partner’s individual return depends on the completed partnership figures, so a missing drawings reconciliation can delay several returns.

Companies

The company block adds records of money paid to directors, shareholders and related parties. Ask for the full movements during the year, not just closing loan balances.

• Director and shareholder loan account transactions, with bank evidence and explanations for journal entries.
• Dividends declared or paid, each dividend statement, supporting resolutions and the franking account reconciliation.
• Director fees, payroll treatment and amounts outstanding at year end.
• Board minutes and resolutions for the year.
• Related-party payments, including payments to family members and the reason for each payment.
• Assets available for private use and expenses paid on behalf of employees, directors or shareholders.
• The ASIC annual statement, current officeholder and shareholder details and evidence that the annual review fee was paid.

Private benefits can require fringe benefits tax or Division 7A review, depending on the recipient and arrangement. Ask how the person uses the asset and whether they repay the company. Route the records into the relevant review instead of treating every payment as a business expense.

The ASIC annual review also includes a solvency resolution. The company’s review timetable is separate from its income-tax year end. Collect any unresolved annual review items without assuming the tax return deadline extends them.

Division 7A Loan Agreements

A private company’s loan, payment or debt forgiveness to a shareholder or associate can create an unfranked deemed dividend. For a loan, repayment or a complying written agreement before the company’s lodgment day can prevent that treatment. A written loan agreement does not automatically fix a payment or debt forgiveness.

Add this block where company money has gone to a shareholder or associate:

• The signed written agreement for each loan, with the date of execution.
• The advance date and amount, the lender company and every borrower.
• The loan term and any mortgage documents supporting its security.
• Opening and closing balances, interest charged and the minimum yearly repayment calculation.
• Bank evidence of each repayment during the income year.
• Documents for dividend offsets or other reductions, including the dividend and set-off records.
• Details of money borrowed again from the company around a repayment.

Section 109N requires the written agreement before lodgment day. That day is the earlier of the company’s return due date and its actual lodgment date. Send the request well before lodging, including when you plan to lodge early.

The maximum term is seven years for an unsecured loan. A qualifying registered mortgage over real property can permit 25 years. The property value, after prior secured liabilities, must meet the statutory security requirement. Collect the mortgage and valuation records before accepting the longer term.

For an existing complying loan, check interest against the benchmark rate for that income year and reconcile the minimum yearly repayment to supporting records. Repayments need to occur within the relevant income year. A journal labelled repayment needs evidence of what legally discharged the debt.

Ask trust clients for unpaid present entitlements owed to private companies, their resolutions and any separate loan arrangements. An unpaid entitlement alone is not automatically a Division 7A loan. The High Court’s 2026 decision rejects that automatic treatment in the circumstances considered. Actual loans and trust payments to shareholders or associates still need review under the relevant Division 7A provisions.

Trusts

Send the trust request before the income year ends, with enough time to review the deed and make the distribution resolution. The deed controls the trustee’s powers and can require action earlier than the year-end boundary.

Request these trust records:

• The trust deed and every variation, including changes to trustees or beneficiaries.
• The trustee’s distribution resolution for the relevant income year and evidence of when it was made.
• Each beneficiary’s name, address and TFN through the practice’s secure document channel.
• Beneficiary entitlements, amounts paid and balances still outstanding.
• Any family trust election or interposed entity election, with the nominated individual, commencement year and supporting records.
• Details of trustee beneficiaries and the information needed for trustee beneficiary reporting where it applies.

The ATO resolutions checklist explains the year-end timing and deed requirements. Waiting until the return is ready can leave the trustee unable to create the intended entitlement for that income year.

Keep the year-end record request separate from preparing the resolution. Use the trust distribution resolution guide for that work. If the resolution arrives late, establish when the trustee actually made it and what the deed permits. Do not backdate it.

Payroll, Super and Contractor Payments

Add payroll questions to any entity that employs staff or pays contractors. Collect payment timing as well as expense totals, because an entry in the accounting file does not show when super reached the fund.

• Confirmation that STP was finalised for the income year, with payroll totals reconciled to the accounting file.
• Super contribution records for each quarter covered by quarterly rules, showing payment dates and when funds received the contributions.
• Pay-run contribution records for periods covered by Payday Super, with fund receipt dates and rejected payments.
• Details of unpaid or late super, together with any super guarantee charge statements.
• Contractor invoices, names, addresses, ABNs and total payments, including GST and cash payments where reportable.
• The taxable payments annual report or the records needed to prepare it, where the business must lodge one.

Ask which services the business supplies and which services its contractors perform. The ATO taxable payments reporting guidance covers designated industries and reporting exemptions. Paying a contractor does not, by itself, mean every business must lodge this report.

Payday Super applies to employer payments covered by the new rules. Employers pay super with wages, and contributions generally must reach the fund within seven business days. Keep the transition periods separate when reviewing a year that spans the change. The ATO’s Payday Super guidance explains the commencement boundary and exceptions.

For the payroll declaration itself, use the STP finalisation steps. A finalised payroll declaration does not prove the employer paid its super on time.

Sending One Checklist Per Entity

Build each request from the common records, the matching entity block and the payroll block where it applies. A sole trader receives their personal-return questions too. A company with shareholder loans receives the Division 7A block.

1. Confirm the client’s entity type and the income year before choosing the lists. Resolve any entity change first.
2. Copy the common list and the applicable blocks into one request. Remove items the practice already holds and ask the client to confirm any changes.
3. Give the request an owner and a records due date. Put trust resolutions and loan deadlines into separate earlier requests when needed.
4. Check the returned pack against every requested item. A complete pack contains either the record or an explicit answer that it does not apply.

If a client uploads only a profit and loss report, ask for the missing statements and year-end figures. If the entity type is wrong, correct it before sending additional questions. A trust’s corporate trustee and its trading trust need separate entity records.

Tax Genie asks the entity type and shows only the matching questions, so sole traders do not work through company questions. It checks ABN, ACN and TFN formats as clients type. Tax Genie follows up missing documents automatically, and staff can see the owner and due date for each item.

You can adapt this covering note with the client’s records due date filled in:

Please send the common business records and your entity’s items by the records due date in this request. Tell us when an item does not apply. Send trust resolution and Division 7A records by their separate deadlines so we can review them before the required action. Late records can leave a trust distribution ineffective or a company amount taxable as a deemed dividend. If you cannot meet a deadline, contact our office before it passes.

Before sending, confirm that each client sees their own entity questions and that every deadline has a staff owner. Keep time-sensitive trust and loan items open until you have the documents needed to assess them.