Tax planning strategies worth reviewing each year

7 min read · General information only

Tax planning isn't about aggressive schemes — it's mostly about not missing straightforward opportunities that reset every financial year. Most of what matters happens in the weeks before 30 June, which is exactly when it's easiest to run out of time to act on it properly.

Superannuation contributions

This is usually the highest-value lever available to most people. Salary sacrifice or personal deductible contributions reduce your taxable income now while adding to super at the concessional 15% tax rate — a significant gap if your marginal rate is 32.5% or higher. If you've had a lower-income year previously, checking your unused concessional cap (carried forward from the past five years, if your total super balance is under $500,000) can meaningfully increase how much you can contribute this year specifically.

Timing income and deductions

• Bringing forward deductible expenses — prepaying interest on an investment loan, or bringing forward planned work-related expenses, before 30 June rather than just after.
• Deferring income where legitimately possible — for business owners with some control over invoice timing, moving income that would otherwise land right at year-end into the next financial year (or vice versa) depending on which year you expect to be on a lower marginal rate.

Capital gains — timing matters more than people expect

If you're planning to sell an asset with a capital gain, the financial year you sell in can change your tax bill significantly, particularly if your income varies year to year. Holding an asset for more than 12 months generally halves the taxable portion of the gain for individuals, so selling one day early to avoid this discount is a common and avoidable mistake. Where possible, realising a gain in a lower-income year — for example, the year you reduce hours or take leave — can reduce the tax paid on it substantially.

The reverse applies to losses: crystallising a capital loss in the same year as a gain can offset it, but the loss has to actually be realised (the asset sold), not just sitting unrealised on paper.

Structuring investments

Where an investment is held — personally, in a trust, in a company, or inside superannuation — changes the tax rate applied to income and gains, and who ultimately controls the timing of distributions. This matters most for higher-income earners and business owners, where the difference between a 47% marginal rate and a 30% company rate (or 15% super rate) on investment earnings compounds meaningfully over time. It's a structural decision, not something to revisit every year, but worth getting right from the outset.

Franking credits

For Australian share investors, franking credits attached to dividends can offset — or in some cases fully refund — tax otherwise payable, particularly for lower-income earners, retirees, or funds in pension phase. Reviewing whether your portfolio is structured to make efficient use of franking credits is a smaller, but genuinely free, part of annual tax planning.

The common thread

Almost all effective tax planning depends on timing — contributions need to land in your fund before 30 June, asset sales need to be timed against your expected income, and deductible expenses need to actually be paid, not just committed to. Leaving it until the last week of June rarely allows time to do it properly.