- The theme of this years' retreat - Expanding the Family Business - focused on taking a successful small business and growing it into a very successful large business, with a particular emphasis on tax (as you would expect!).
- The journey involved:
- restructuring at the outset (when the initial structure may not be suitable for the owners' changing circumstances)
- rewarding and retaining key personnel
- critical issues associated with forming tax consolidated and GST groups
- avoiding penal tax outcomes when operations are financed through profits taxed at the corporate rate
- identifying and dealing with intellectual property and goodwill (including licensing)
- extracting value through earnouts, dividends and share buybacks
- once the business has been successfully sold, dealing with the benefits that have accumulated in the superannuation fund.