Build Your Wealth

Building Your Wealth, written by tax expert Peter McDonald in consultation with tax and superannuation specialists Barbara Smith, AM and Dr Ed Koken, is a book of step-by-step wealth creation strategies that anyone can follow.

Written in an easy-to-understand style and with tips, traps, strategies and checklists to help you maximise the return on your investments, minimise the tax you pay and reduce the effect of any unforeseen circumstances, this book will show you how to secure a financially independent future.

Investors and business owners, as well as tax accountants and financial planners looking to pass information on to clients, will find Building Your Wealth a valuable source of practical wealth creation and tax minimisation strategies. Topics covered include:

    * Buying a business and how to operate a business effectively

    * Tax-effective business structures and how to minimise business risk

    * Salary packaging to increase your disposable income and minimise tax

    * Protecting your assets

    * Wealth creation through property and investments

    * Superannuation and estate planning

Peter, Barbara and Ed have over 60 years of tax knowledge and experience combined. For the past 17 years, Peter McDonald has been informing taxpayers and protecting their rights, with 12 of those spent as the National director of Taxpayers Australia Inc. As a leading tax expert, he has represented taxpayers at the highest level of government, Treasury and the Tax Office, and is also a media commentator. He has written many books on tax, including the Taxpayers’ Guide from 1993 to 2005. Barbara and Ed are experts in self-managed superannuation funds, as well as retirement planning, and are prolific authors in these and other areas.

Contents include:

      Chapter 1: Buying a business

    * Going into business

    * Business valuation - what is the business worth?

    * What are you buying?

    * Financing the purchase

      Chapter 2: Salary packaging

    * Overview of salary packaging

    * Salary packaging options

    * Taxable value of fringe benefits

      Chapters 3: Business structures

    * Overview of business structures

    * Trading structures

    * Choosing the right structure

      Chapter 4: Business risk

    * Overview of business risk

    * Personal insurance

    * General insurance

    * Business insurance

    * Business succession planning

    * Managing financial risk

      Chapter 5: Investments

    * Investment and wealth creation issues

    * Direct investment

    * Managed investments

    * Financial mathematics

      Chapter 6: Homeownership

    * Overview of homeownership

    * CGT consequences of a company owning your home

    * CGT consequences of a trust owning the home

    * Personal ownership of the family home

    * Other CGT issues

    * Retirement

    * Financing the acquisition of a home

    * Renovating a home

      Chapter 7: Personal asset protection

    * Company directors and associates

    * Trade practices

    * Guarantees and contracts

    * Tort

    * Bankruptcy

      Chapter 8: Superannuation

    * Overview of superannuation

    * Deductions for superannuation contributions

    * Personal superannuation claims

    * Making superannuation contributions for a spouse

    * Staying in superannuation versus cashing out

    * Protection in bankruptcy

      Chapter 9: Business operation

    * Business plan

    * Finance

    * Equipment

    * Taxation planning

    * Employee or contractor?

    * Personal services business

    * The internet

    * Electronic banking

      Chapter 10: Estate planning

    * Overview of estate planning

    * Estate assets

    * Non-estate assets

    * Wills

    * Executor

    * Dying intestate

    * Testamentary trust

    * Powers of attorney

    * Superannuation: death benefits ETPs

    * Death and income taxes

    * Distribution of capital gains

    * Main residence

    * Capital losses

    * Life interest estates

    * Record-keeping