What is company tax return preparation?
The company return on a closed year-end file — with the base-rate-entity question flagged for the agent, not guessed.
A company registered with ASIC files two separate things every year, on two separate calendars, and it is common for a growing business to only notice the second one when a late fee arrives: the company tax return, lodged with the ATO, and the ASIC annual company review — a distinct solvency-resolution and fee obligation that has nothing to do with taxable income. The tax return itself is due 31 October if self-lodged; a company added to a registered tax agent's client list before 31 October gets pulled onto the agent lodgment program, which for most companies without an earlier payment-date trigger extends the deadline out to around 15 May the following year. Missing that 31 October add-by cutoff forfeits the extension for the whole year, which is the single most common way a company ends up rushing a return it had months to prepare properly.
The number every company return turns on is the tax rate, and Australia runs a two-tier system rather than a flat corporate rate: 25% for a base-rate entity, 30% for everything else. A company qualifies as a base-rate entity only if its aggregated turnover sits under $50 million for the year AND no more than 80% of its assessable income is base-rate-entity passive income — interest, rent, royalties, dividends, net capital gains. Both conditions have to hold. A company can have modest turnover and still fail the test because a large chunk of a lean year's income came from investment returns rather than trading, which is exactly the kind of edge case that needs the underlying numbers laid out, not assumed.
Who does what
Prepared for your registered tax agent, who determines the rate, advises and lodges.
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | Company tax return preparation, the reconciliations and reporting behind it, and the questions list that keeps it honest. |
| Your registered BAS or tax agent | Everything that carries a licence in Australia — rendered exactly as written: work out what goes on your bas, or advise you on it — under tasa 2009 that requires registration we do not hold. |
| You | One conversation with one named person, and the decisions that are genuinely yours. |
Company tax return preparation in Australia
The 25%/30% rate is a two-part test, not a lookup by turnover alone
A company qualifies for the 25% base-rate-entity rate only when aggregated turnover is under $50 million for the year and no more than 80% of assessable income is base-rate-entity passive income — interest, rent, royalties, dividends, net capital gains. A company can clear the turnover threshold easily and still fail on the passive-income share in a year where trading income was thin and investment returns were not. We run both tests against the actual ledger and hand the numbers and the result across; your registered tax agent determines the rate the return applies.
Div 7A turns an informal director loan into a deemed dividend without an amended agreement
A payment or loan from a private company to a shareholder or associate is treated as an unfranked deemed dividend under Division 7A unless it is documented as a complying loan agreement — in writing, before the company's lodgment day — carrying minimum annual repayments and interest at least at the ATO's benchmark rate (8.37% for 2025–26, set from the RBA's housing variable indicator rate). A shortfall against the minimum yearly repayment by 30 June converts that year's shortfall into a deemed dividend; there is no grace period once the date passes.
The ASIC annual review runs on a separate calendar from the tax return
The company tax return is an ATO obligation; the ASIC annual company review — including the solvency resolution directors sign and the annual review fee ($342 for FY2025–26 for a standard proprietary company) — is a separate compliance stream keyed to the company's own review date, not 31 October. Treating them as one obligation is how companies discover a lapsed ASIC review well after the tax return has already been lodged clean.
The AusIndustry R&D registration deadline has no discretion to extend
If the R&D Tax Incentive offset is being claimed in the company return, the underlying core and supporting activities have to be registered with AusIndustry within 10 months of the end of the income year — 30 April 2027 for FY2025–26. That date does not move for genuinely eligible spend that simply missed the window; the offset itself, once registered, is 43.5% refundable for companies with aggregated turnover under $20 million, and intensity-tiered and non-refundable above that threshold.
What your registered BAS or tax agent receives from us
- A taxable-income reconciliation from accounting profit — every add-back, capital allowance and carried-forward tax loss itemised and matched to its supporting document.
- The base-rate-entity test worked through against the actual ledger: aggregated turnover and the passive-income share of assessable income, shown as a result with the underlying figures, not asserted as a rate.
- The franking account rolled forward for the period — dividends paid and received, franking credits and debits — reconciled to the company's distribution history.
- A Div 7A loan-account schedule for every director/shareholder loan: opening balance, minimum yearly repayment required, repayments actually made, and whether the 30 June deadline was met.
- A PAYG instalment reconciliation showing what has already been paid during the year against the final liability the return calculates.
- Closed statutory financial statements — profit & loss and balance sheet — plus notes on any manual journal entry made to close the year.
