I have invited a guest expert to share some thoughts on your favourite topic - tax! David Watts of Watts Woollett LLP.

Imagine for a moment that your entire tax and financial situation is a darkened room. Applying a head in the sand strategy means there is never any light in that room.

Applying a piecemeal strategy is equivalent to walking into the room with a box of matches. So from time to time parts of the room are lit but they are never lit long enough to do anything other than deal with the information immediately to hand.

Wouldn't it be much easier to just plan to have electricity connected beforehand and walk in and switch the light on in the room and then turn it off again when you want? This equates to developing your own holistic tax strategy.

There is a saying that the only things certain in life are death and taxes. That may be true, but you may have more control than you realise over the amount of taxes you have to endure by co-ordinated organisation of your tax affairs in a low risk way.

 
1)  Avoid 'head in the sand' strategies. They are likely to cost you extra tax every year. A tax expert may cover the cost of using them from the saving they identify, or avoiding fines from having it done in time.
  
2) Only use a piecemeal strategy when matters are urgent and you have to. Otherwise you are likely to miss co-ordinated tax opportunities. A holistic tax strategy is the better choice. This means collecting information about your family history, assets, liabilities and plans for the future in one place and building a straightforward action plan and then executing each action when most advantageous to do so.
 

3) Set up a segmented file with all you need so the task feels less arduous.

4) Don't leave dealing with your tax until the last minute. Think ahead and put key dates in your diary, block out time to prepare and take yourself to a place where you can focus without interruption, then reward yourself when you complete the task.

5) Take the pain out of your tax and delegate it to an expert.   

Career change can be imagined to be as painful as tax. It doesn't have to be like that! Our e course is a thorough, practical and strategic step by step process to create it. Click on this link to find out more: