Tax Time & Record Keeping

rowes · 25 May 2007

Hi,

Was curious as to what it is that you are required to give to your accountant in the way of record keeping. For those of you that trade regularly and enlist the help of an accountant, do you.. Provide an XL sheet similar to those shown in the the thread titled 'Excell Spreadsheets' and give that to the accountant on disk or do you use some kind of reporting software and provide detailed reports on all your trades? If there is anything else you need to provide and if so what would that be. (This is only to cover trading itself and your record keeping, not any of the extra things you may want to claim)

GreatPig · 25 May 2007

On disk? You can still buy those things?

I give mine a few spreadsheets, one for all my trades, one for dividends & distributions, and one with all other stuff. I email them as PDFs, although they sometimes come back and ask for the XLS files (easier for them to do sorting, etc).

Haven't looked at the Excel spreadsheet thread, but each of mine just have the basic information required by the accountant and maybe some extra columns for my own use. The data for them is generated by the portfolio software I use, a program I developed myself.

Then I also send them any physical paperwork they need, like dividend/distribution statements, bank statements, etc. (I use Express Post for this - I never actually visit my accountant).

Cheers,
GP

Bullion · 25 May 2007

What exactly would an accountant need if for instance, I have not received any dividends and only made profits and losses on all trades, but with an overall loss.

If I were doing my own tax return, would the only figure I need is the net capital loss?

rowes · 25 May 2007

GreatPig said:
On disk? You can still buy those things?

hehehe true true

rowes · 25 May 2007

GreatPig said:
On disk? You can still buy those things?

I give mine a few spreadsheets, one for all my trades, one for dividends & distributions, and one with all other stuff. I email them as PDFs, although they sometimes come back and ask for the XLS files (easier for them to do sorting, etc).

Haven't looked at the Excel spreadsheet thread, but each of mine just have the basic information required by the accountant and maybe some extra columns for my own use. The data for them is generated by the portfolio software I use, a program I developed myself.

Then I also send them any physical paperwork they need, like dividend/distribution statements, bank statements, etc. (I use Express Post for this - I never actually visit my accountant).

Cheers,
GP

Cool, i thougth this would sort of be the case, just want to best prepared/organised for when the time comes.

(I use Express Post for this - I never actually visit my accountant).

Love this idea - no offence to any Accountants of course

disarray · 25 May 2007

i am a sole trader and use MYOB to track my business cash flow. when i took up share trading my accountant got me to create new codes in MYOB as a share trading account. i use this in conjunction with an excel spreadsheet for more indepth tracking (for purchase dates, net profit etc.).

bernardp · 25 May 2007

The more detail regarding Buys and Sells (clearly dated for CGT purposes) thus resulting in gains or losses you can provide to your accountant, generally the less you will pay them. An excel spreadsheet that always reconciles is often handy

Under recent ATO legaslative changes, the definition of a share trader is becoming increasingly more difficult to prove, and the ATO is coming down hard on this area. We often have problems with individuals who think or are convinced they are share traders, hence expecting everything to be treated as trading stock, when in fact they are no where near this definition. We then have to charge them a fair bit to go through their broker statements... not something we want to do!!

The more effort you make in making things clear, the easier for your accountant to complete your return. If things aren't clear enough, it will take them longer to finish the job, hurting your wallet!

Hope this helps.

nomore4s · 25 May 2007

bernardp said:
The more detail regarding Buys and Sells (clearly dated for CGT purposes) thus resulting in gains or losses you can provide to your accountant, generally the less you will pay them. An excel spreadsheet that always reconciles is often handy

Under recent ATO legaslative changes, the definition of a share trader is becoming increasingly more difficult to prove, and the ATO is coming down hard on this area. We often have problems with individuals who think or are convinced they are share traders, hence expecting everything to be treated as trading stock, when in fact they are no where near this definition. We then have to charge them a fair bit to go through their broker statements... not something we want to do!!

The more effort you make in making things clear, the easier for your accountant to complete your return. If things aren't clear enough, it will take them longer to finish the job, hurting your wallet!

Hope this helps.

What exactly is the definition of a share trader with the ATO?

rowes · 25 May 2007

What exactly is the definition of a share trader with the ATO?

http://www.ato.gov.au/businesses/content.asp?doc=/content/21749.htm&pc=001/003/007/001/006&mnu=27942&mfp=001/003&st=&cy=1

this explains

Tax Time & Record Keeping

rowes

GreatPig

Pigs In Space

Bullion

rowes

rowes

disarray

bernardp

nomore4s

Commonsense isn't that common

rowes

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