Corinne Kirk · Aug 08, 2025 · Accounting and Taxation
The superannuation guarantee rate is now 12 per cent, and the contribution thresholds for 2025–26 have been updated. The consequences of getting either wrong are specific — and avoidable.
Corinne Kirk · Oct 02, 2026 · Business Advisory
A business can earn well and still have little to sell. A buyer values what continues when the owner is absent.
Ben Wieland · Oct 07, 2025 · Wealth Management
The downsizer contribution to superannuation is one of the most generous provisions available to Australians over 55. Whether it is the right decision depends on questions that go well beyond the contribution mechanics.
Corinne Kirk · Aug 08, 2025 · Accounting and Taxation
Interest deductibility is determined by how borrowed funds are used — not by the security provided, not by the account the funds pass through. Getting the structure wrong before the loan is drawn is a mistake that is difficult to fix after the fact.
Corinne Kirk · Aug 08, 2025 · Accounting and Taxation
Buyers of luxury vehicles for business use frequently overestimate the tax deductions available to them. The rules that apply are specific, the thresholds are updated annually, and the cost of misunderstanding them is quantifiable.
Ben Wieland · Aug 08, 2025 · Wealth Management
The RBA held the cash rate at 3.85 per cent in July. For clients carrying variable debt or managing a portfolio through this rate cycle, the implications are specific and worth working through carefully.
Ben Wieland · Oct 07, 2025 · Wealth Management
Debt is neither inherently useful nor inherently destructive. Its effect on a financial position depends on what it is used for, at what cost, and whether the borrower has thought clearly about the conditions under which the strategy fails.
Corinne Kirk · Aug 31, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
Sell your investment property for $300,000 more than you paid, and the taxable gain is often higher — depreciation claimed each year reduces the cost base at sale.
Corinne Kirk · Oct 07, 2025 · Accounting and Taxation
Trust distribution resolutions prepared after year-end — even where the underlying decision was sound — can be declared invalid by the ATO. The Goldenville case illustrates what that costs.
Corinne Kirk · Jun 01, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
A personal contribution to superannuation can be claimed as a tax deduction — converting income taxed at your marginal rate into income taxed at 15 per cent inside the fund. The benefit is significant. The conditions are specific, and the deadline is 30 June.
Corinne Kirk · Jun 01, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
The Medicare levy surcharge thresholds rose on 1 July 2025 — the single threshold lifting to $101,000. For many taxpayers, however, the surcharge is more likely to apply now, not less. The interaction with rising incomes is the reason.
Ben Wieland · Nov 13, 2025 · Wealth Management
The decision to help a child buy their first home is not a simple one. It is an act of generosity that can, if structured poorly, compromise the very financial security that makes such generosity possible. The question worth asking before any commitment is made is how to help without diminishing what has been built — not whether to help at all.
Corinne Kirk · Apr 14, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
From 1 July 2026, employers must pay superannuation at the same time as wages. For most businesses, the operational consequence is straightforward: super must now be funded from operating cash flow on every payday, not quarterly. The preparation required is real.
Ben Wieland · Aug 05, 2026 · Wealth Management
Over the decade to 31 December 2024, the average dollar invested in US mutual funds and exchange-traded funds earned 1.2 per cent per year less than the funds themselves returned. The investments performed; the investors, on average, did not. The gap is the returns that behaviour destroys.
Ben Widdup · May 04, 2026 · Wealth Management
Life, TPD, Trauma, and Income Protection insurance are four distinct products that address four distinct risks. Most Australians hold at least one in default form without knowing what it covers. The differences matter.
Corinne Kirk · May 13, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
The 50 per cent CGT discount ends 1 July 2027. Negative gearing narrows. Trusts face a 30 per cent floor. EGU's complete guide to what the Budget means for your planning.
Ben Widdup · Oct 07, 2025 · Wealth Management
Most retirement planning conversations focus on the balance required to stop working. Few address the structure, identity, and social connection that work provides — and what replaces them.
Ben Wieland · Jun 01, 2026 · Wealth Management
Long-horizon wealth is built by owning productive assets. Equities are volatile, unpredictable, and at times uncomfortable to hold. They remain the only mechanism through which an investor participates directly in productive enterprise at scale.
Corinne Kirk · Oct 07, 2025 · Accounting and Taxation
The ATO's general interest charge is running at 11.17 per cent per annum and is no longer deductible. For many taxpayers, that makes an ATO payment plan one of the most expensive financing arrangements on their balance sheet.
Ben Wieland · Apr 13, 2026 · Wealth Management
The Treasury Laws Amendment (Building a Stronger and Fairer Super System) Act 2026 passed both houses of Parliament in early March 2026. Division 296 — the new tax on superannuation balances above $3 million — takes effect on 1 July 2026.
Corinne Kirk · Oct 07, 2025 · Accounting and Taxation
For many Australians, superannuation is their largest asset. The rules governing early access are narrow, the compliance risks are real, and the penalties for getting it wrong are significant.
Ben Widdup · Apr 13, 2026 · Wealth Management
Saving and investing are used interchangeably. They mean different things — and the distinction shapes every decision about time horizon, risk, and the role of compounding in building a financial future.
Ben Wieland · Jun 01, 2026 · Wealth Management
The 2026 crisis produced one of the widest divergences in global market returns in recent memory. The lesson is not that an investor should have picked the winning market. It is that no investor can — which is precisely why genuine diversification matters.
Ben Widdup · Nov 13, 2025 · Wealth Management
Contactless payments — Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay — are now the default for many Australians. The question worth asking is whether they are more secure than tapping a physical card, and where the actual risks lie.
Ben Wieland · Aug 05, 2026 · Wealth Management
Six months ago, the developed world's central banks were expected to spend 2026 cutting rates. Today, they are contemplating whether to raise them further. The shift in institutional thinking has been quiet and unmistakable — and it matters more than the marginal moves themselves.
Ben Widdup · Aug 31, 2026 · Wealth Management
The RBA held at 4.35 per cent on 11 August and narrowed its hike trigger from "if needed" to "if upside risks materialise." The rate did not move; the base case has.
Ben Widdup · Aug 05, 2026 · Wealth Management
The Reserve Bank meets on 11 August. All four major domestic banks expect a hold at 4.35 per cent; most surveyed economists expect a further hike. The data that has arrived since the June meeting is mixed — enough to sustain a case for either action or restraint.
Ben Wieland · Oct 02, 2026 · Wealth Management
The S&P 500 was nearly flat in September. The typical stock inside it fell almost 6 per cent. The gap is the story.
Ben Wieland · May 04, 2026 · Wealth Management
The RBA raised the cash rate to 4.10 per cent in March — a split decision, in a cycle that was supposed to be easing. With Australian inflation back at 4.6 per cent and the May meeting underway, the implications for portfolios and debt are worth working through carefully.
Corinne Kirk · Oct 02, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
Rental deductions fall into three groups: immediate, spread over years, or not deductible at all. Confusing them is the common error.
Ben Widdup · Oct 02, 2026 · Wealth Management
The RBA hiked to 4.60 per cent as inflation and unemployment both rose. A harder trade-off than August's hold suggested.
Corinne Kirk · Aug 05, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
A common misconception among PAYG earners is that a $100 tax-deductible expense "gets you $100 back." A deduction reduces taxable income, not tax payable. The dollar-for-dollar assumption inflates the perceived benefit and can lead to material errors in personal financial decisions.
Ben Widdup · Jun 01, 2026 · Wealth Management
With its May increase, the RBA has now delivered three consecutive hikes in 2026 — lifting the cash rate to 4.35 per cent and erasing every cut it made in 2025. The rate cycle has come full circle. The implications for portfolios and borrowers are worth working through carefully.
Ben Wieland · Apr 13, 2026 · Wealth Management
On 28 February 2026, the United States and Israel launched coordinated airstrikes on Iran. Within hours, the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed. What followed was not a geopolitical surprise — it was a portfolio test.
Ben Wieland · Aug 31, 2026 · Wealth Management
Markets are uncertain. Fees, taxes, and portfolio drift are not. The discipline is to know what each cost is paying for, rather than to minimise every cost.
Corinne Kirk · Oct 07, 2025 · Accounting and Taxation
The Federal Government's review of supermarket unit pricing is not a consumer protection exercise in isolation. For businesses supplying into the grocery sector, the proposals on the table carry real compliance and commercial implications.
Corinne Kirk · Aug 31, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
Many crypto holders assume a swap is not taxable unless they cash out to AUD. The ATO says otherwise — the swap itself is the CGT event.
Ben Wieland · Aug 31, 2026 · Wealth Management
On his 100th day as US Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh used his first Jackson Hole keynote to sharpen the Fed's inflation warning. The direction of monetary thinking has hardened, again.
Ben Wieland · Jan 06, 2026 · Wealth Management
Most people have a reasonable sense of their financial position. Fewer have examined it with the kind of structured attention that reveals where the gaps are and what to do about them. A systematic review of your financial affairs — done properly, once a year — is one of the most useful things you can do.
Corinne Kirk · Apr 14, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
The instant asset write-off threshold drops from $20,000 to $1,000 on 1 July 2026. For business owners weighing a purchase before 30 June, the arithmetic of the write-off changes significantly after that date.
Ben Widdup · Jan 06, 2026 · Wealth Management
Inflation erodes purchasing power quietly and consistently. Understanding how it moves through a household budget — and where the practical adjustments lie — is the first step toward managing it deliberately rather than absorbing it passively.
Ben Wieland · May 04, 2026 · Wealth Management
The US-Iran ceasefire on 7 April sent equity markets sharply higher. Within days, the Strait of Hormuz closed again and those gains reversed. The pattern is instructive — and not for the first time.
Corinne Kirk · May 04, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
With less than two months until 30 June, the window for meaningful tax planning for small businesses is narrowing. These are the five areas that consistently deliver the most material outcomes for businesses with turnover under $10 million.
Corinne Kirk · Aug 05, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
PAYG instalments is the system through which people who earn business or investment income pre-pay their tax quarterly to the ATO. It is not an additional tax; it is the same tax, collected earlier. Understanding how the amount is calculated — and when to vary it — is the difference between managed cash flow and a year-end surprise.
Corinne Kirk · Oct 02, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
A smaller refund is rarely an error. Bracket creep, offset phase-outs and HECS repayments compound quietly across the year.
Corinne Kirk · May 04, 2026 · Accounting and Taxation
The most valuable tax planning for individuals happens before 30 June — not at lodgement time. These are the five actions that consistently produce the most material outcomes for individual taxpayers in the 2025–26 financial year.
Ben Wieland · Oct 02, 2026 · Wealth Management
A higher cash rate raises the cost of a shortfall and the reward for a buffer. Budgeting discipline matters more either way.