Why Use a Specialist Medical Accountant?
November 25th, 2014
There are a great many reasons why all medical personnel should use a specialist medical accountant when it comes to dealing with your finances. These range from changes in Medicare policies that may affect you differently to those in other professions to ensuring you are receiving the correct deductions for your industry.
We’ve put together this list of what you can expect to receive when you employ an accountancy firm that is expert in the minefield of medical taxes, and also some specific areas that non-medical accountants are known to make frequent mistakes.
As a firm specialising in medical accounts, you can expect that we will:
- Prepare accounts in a standard format ensuring that income and expenses are not netted off. If expenses are set against the income source rather than being shown separately, the true expense of running the practice will be understated and you may not be claiming the GST credits you are entitled to.
- Compare your practice knowledgeably with other practices locally and, if required, at a national level.
- Be aware of what the accounts should look like and which expense claims can be made to minimize ATO enquiries.
- Understand what claims should be made and what income is expected, and notify you if there are unexpected or missing figures.
- Keep abreast of material changes in Medicare funding, and warn you in advance of how these might affect your practice.
- Systemise an agreed timetable with you to turnaround the accounts, while still waiting long enough to finalise accounts to ensure all income is correctly included.
- Understand the complications of GST and medical practices.
- Have a dedicated healthcare team fully up to date with medical accounts so you are not dependent on a single point of contact.
- Help you to prepare meaningful budgets and make calculations for available drawings.
- Have access to other experts specialising in the medical profession, such as financial planners, solicitors, credit advisors, and insurance advisors – either in-house or through our own network of professional contacts.
Errors frequently made by non-specialist accountants include:
- Netting off income and expenses that can result in incorrect GST claims.
- Incorrect tax treatment of superannuation contributions paid or due to be paid, resulting in the wrong tax relief being applied.
- Allocating profits incorrectly, particularly regarding personal services income. This can affect the balances due to or from partners.
- Miscalculating superannuation contributions where there is a mix of self-employment and employment.
- Including income to which PAYG withholding has been applied in the accounts, resulting in the income being taxed twice.
To find out more about how a specialist medical accountant could help those in the healthcare industry with taxes, contact the expert team at MEDIQ Financial today.