It may seem like the end of the financial year is a lifetime away and working on your taxes an eternity. But, there’s no best time like today for shrewd small business owners to start planning, coordinating and developing their personal and business end-of-year tax saving strategies of deferring income where possible until July 1 while maximizing deductions by June 30 to take full advantage of changing tax-saving opportunities and to sidestep a range of looming tax traps; thus, saving more of their hard-earned profits, as well as eliminating headaches and possible IRS difficulties down the road.

Here are some of the business end-of-year tax strategies for SME owners:

Transfer Property or Shares to Save Tax
When there is a lessening of the property and share prices, SME owners and investors should consider making the most of these low prices to transfer assets from their names to a lower-earning spouse or to their concessionally taxed self-managed super fund (SMSF) as less CGT and stamp duty are payable than when prices were higher.

Regularly Check Your SME’s eligibility for Small Business Tax Regime
SME owners (with a turnover of less than $2 million) should do a regular check if their enterprise is eligible for this regime – and, if possible, make adjustments to fall within the threshold as these SMEs are eligible for a range of tax benefits including simplified depreciation, CGT concessions/exemptions and simplified depreciation rules allowing an immediate tax deduction for assets costing less than $1,000.

Defer Purchase of Small Business Assets
As from July, eligible small businesses can instantly write-off assets costing up to $6,500 as well as claim an accelerated initial deduction of $5,000 for motor vehicles acquired from July 2012. It is advisable to defer the purchase of assets until July.

Defer As Much Income and Capital Gains as Possible
It is a fundamental end-of-year tax strategy for SMEs to defer as much income and capital gains as possible until after June 30 and to accelerate deductions in this tax year where possible.

Some ways to defer tax would include delaying the issuance of invoices and postponing asset sales (do this if it is justifiable for non-tax reasons and provided payment of the invoices and asset sales are not put in jeopardy).

To better know your end-of-year taxes, SMs should make use of small business accounting software to help in managing taxes and other financial transactions. By using accounting software small business, you can also save time and money as these online accounting software solutions are affordable.