Tag Archives: tax

End of Financial Year

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It is almost the end of June and here in Australia that means it is the end of the financial year.  It is tax time and a busy time for many businesses.  My workload is a bit more than usual this week and it has been compounded by the fact that I was out of the office for 3 days last week at a conference.

So, there is not much time for taking photos or doing anything worthy of a blog post.

While I am busy at work you can enjoy these couple of photos from last week.  It is winter here at the moment but you would not know it.

Some of the accommodation at the resort where we stayed for the conference.

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Sunrise at Noosa beach on the shortest day of the year.

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A friend took the sunrise photo and yes, the speck in the water is me.  The morning was cool but the water was beautiful.  Such a refreshing start to the day.

Don’t forget that it is almost July so it is time for another round of ‘Plastic Free July’.  My blog posts for the month will reflect that theme and focus on our commitment to eliminate single use plastic items as much as possible.  Will you join me in trying to make a difference?

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Piles of Paper

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This photo of the study desk which I posted yesterday, is the superficial face of what is lurking deeper.

2011-08-24 02‘Study’ is probably a bit of a misnomer for this room as neither of us are studying anything and haven’t done so for many years.  I should really call it the office as it is the office from which we jointly run the business of our lives and our home.

The business of our income and expenditure includes bank statements, tax returns, superannuation information, rates, utilities and various insurance policies.  We have a filing cabinet in here.

2011-08-25 02Like this…..

2011-08-25 03I have found that simply filing everything is not enough.  We need to regularly check and cull what we keep.  There is no benefit in keeping bank statements from 20 years ago unless you are planning a museum.  My theory is that since tax returns need to be kept for 5 years, it is reasonable to align other financial paperwork by the same criteria.

Each year when the tax is finalised and we receive the paperwork from the accountant, I remove the oldest year and rename the file for the current year so that we can collect any relevant  information in one place.

I sorted through the bank statements and found that they dated back to 2004 which means that I had not cleared any out for at least a couple of years.  This has now been rectified and I have a pile ready for shredding.  I will add bank statements to the list of things for an annual cull at the end of the financial year.

2011-08-25 04I keep folders of instructions, receipts and warranties for all of our appliances and equipment.  I check these from time to time and remove the details for anything we no longer own.

Keeping the paperwork under control seems to require constant vigilance, otherwise it can very easily get out of control.  It is a fine line between hoarding everything and retaining what is required by law, such as tax returns.

What documents do you keep and why?