Starting a new business is a big step in anyone’s life. For most people, it involves significant financial outlay, huge time commitments and, when it’s not done right, a lot of stress. Thankfully, there are some things that you can do to streamline the process and make things easier on yourself.
For one, you can speak to a commercial lawyer to make sure that you’re taking into account your legal obligations. These vary according to the type of business you’re building and how you’re planning on running it. But, I’ve outlined a few important things that you should keep in mind in this article. They include:
- Your business structure
It’s very important to think carefully about what sort of business you want to run and how you want to structure it. Different business structures come with different tax structures, liability levels, and ongoing control. Common business structures in Australia include:
- Sole trader, where you’re personally liable for your business and its income is reported as part of your tax return.
- Partnership, which is similar to a sole trader, but which involves the profits and losses of the business being shared between two or more people.
- Trust, which involves a third party being in control of the business.
- Company, which is a separate legal entity and which declares its own income for taxation purposes.
