I know it's the end of the year coming up so I wondered how things work over here.

Will I get sent a tax return form?

I'm going to sort out an accoutant, is there a deadline for when the return has to be submitted or does it work like the UK and you have til, say, January 2007?

If you are trading as an individual, sole trader etc., then you can do your own tax return, if you wish to.

As a Limited Company you would need to use an accountant to prepare the accounts.

Deadlines for individuals, and sole traders, are at the end of October. ie: You have 4 months in which to prepare and submit your figures.

However, if you register with a Tax Agent, they are allowed extra time, and this could extend to early the following year.

Tax Returns can be done online, and info on that is normally available from July 1st at http://www.ato.gov.au

Some tax info for businesses is at: http://www.ato.gov.au/businesses/pathway.a...874#001_003_003

From my previous experience at working with a firm of Accountants:
If you feel that you can do prepare your own business accounts, but want the tax side done by an agent, then use a Tax Agent. They will generally just work from your final figures.

However, if you use an Accountant, they will tend to go through everything, and effectively redo all that you have done. Cost will be much higher.

The firm of Accountants that I worked for, charged over $250 for an individual tax return, compared to most tax agents at the time who were charging about $50.

Thanks ABCD, didnt know that about tax agents and accountants, I do my own books so will probably just try and get a tax agent, unless over here tax returns are much more straightforward?

The actual returns seem quite easy, but the hard bit is knowing what deductions you can claim.

From January you can download the TaxPack software, and play around with it, see what results you get.

You can also pick up a paper copy of the tax pack return from most Newsagents, free of charge of course.