Salary Sacrifice: Doctors and medical professionals who are filing their tax return have a wonderful opportunity to “Salary Sacrifice”.  Salary sacrifice is an arrangement between you and your employer that allows you to pay for certain work related goods and services from your salary before taxes are calculated! Paying directly from your pre-taxed salary lets you buy what you need to work efficiently while decreasing your taxable income for the year.  The effect is thousands of dollars in tax savings! 

For example, let’s say you’re planning on purchasing a new car for work purposes. The car is $25,000 and you make $100,000 per year. Under a Salary Sacrifice agreement, the cost of the car is deducted from your salary, leaving you with only $75,000 of taxable income. In this example, not only would you receive a tax-free vehicle, you would have lowered your income enough to qualify for a lower tax rate which will save even more of your hard earned money!

However there are restrictions on what you can sacrifice and the agreement must be structured with your employer in a specific way from the start. If your salary sacrifice agreement is not structured properly, everything you think you’ve purchased tax-free may be disqualified, leaving you with a larger than expected tax bill at the end of the year. 

Don’t risk paying more than you should. Our salary sacrifice experts will make sure all agreements are structured properly from the start. 

Private Health Insurance: Did you know you could be charged an additional 1.5% of your income if you do not have the proper level of private health insurance? The Medical Levy Surcharge will affect you if you earn a specific level of income and can be easily avoided with proper preparation. Doctors and nurses filing their tax return can avoid this Levy with proper preparation and planning. Call our office now to speak with a specialised tax return agent and see if this affects you. 

Income Protection Insurance: No one plans to get sick or injured but accidents do happen, even to the best of us. Income Protection Insurance is the vital safety net for you and your family and many doctors filing their tax returns do not realise it is tax deductible! 

Superannuation Strategies: An advanced tax return strategy for doctors and medical professionals includes “Sacrificing Superannuation Contributions”. The benefits of this strategy are two fold: Making additional contributions into your Superannuation fund will allow you more revenue during retirement and it can reduce your taxable income this year, possibly bringing you into a lower tax bracket. There are limits to the amount that can be contributed however. To see if this strategy is right for you contact our expert financial advisors today!

Structuring:  The key to maximizing wealth and minimising taxes paid when filing tax returns as a doctor or medical professional is the structure of your financial accounts.  The proper structure is foundational to protecting your assets, legally minimising your taxes paid, and growing your wealth. Not having the proper structure can be costly in the long run and can sabotage years of hard work.

Going into Private Practice:  Going private can be an excellent decision with many benefits. However the added responsibility means you must be even more careful to structure your affairs properly to succeed. This could include new, specialised structutres, GST registrations and other strategies to organise your tax affairs, while planning for the future.

Get the right advice no matter where you are in your professional journey. Our expert team of financial advisors specialises in building unique financial foundations for doctors and other medical professionals, so they can be successful today and long into the future.  Call us today to see just how much value we can bring to you and your family!