By Bjorn Kirberg

Small business owners who sell business assets may be eligible for tax concessions on capital gains and may be able to contribute an amount into superannuation to help fund their retirement.

Eligibility requirements include:

Net value of assets owned by your business and related entities is below $6 million or aggregated turnover of your business is less than $2 million.

The business/asset being sold must be an active asset (not passive).

Additional rules apply if the asset being sold are shares in a company or an interest in a trust.

Once the eligibility requirements are met, the following concessions may be available:

15-year exemption – 100% tax free is owned more than 15 years and the owner is over 55 and retiring

Small business 50% active asset reduction – provides a 50% reduction on the capital gain (in addition to the general 50% discount).

Retirement exemption – Up to $500,000 (lifetime limit) can reduce the capital gain.  If under 55, this amount must be contributed into superannuation.

Small business rollover relief – Allows a replacement business to be purchased in order to defer the capital gain until that business is sold in the future.

These rules appear simple in concept however are extremely complex.  If the eligibility conditions aren’t met, the tax consequences could be disastrous.

In the next several episodes, we will delve deeper and explore each of the aspects in more detail.

You may be eligible to receive a grant, based on the payroll size of your eligible business in Queensland.  This grant may be used for business expenses.

Initially the grant was $5,000 however this has been increased to $10,000 for businesses with payroll below $1.3 million and $15,000 for businesses with payroll between $1.3 million and $10 million.

To be eligible, your business must:
employ staff (employees must be on your payroll and does not include any business owners)
have an ABN continuously held from 30 June 2021
be registered for GST
have Queensland headquarters
not be insolvent, or have owners or directors that are insolvent or an undischarged bankrupt
have an annual turnover of over $75,000 during any of the 2018–19, 2019–20 or 2020–21 financial years
demonstrate the business was directly or indirectly impacted by a lockdown event in July/August 2021
demonstrate or declare a reduction in turnover of 30% or more during a nominated 7-day period.  NOTE: This must include at least 1 full day of a lockdown event when comparing against turnover achieved during the same 7-day period in July or August 2019