ATO and Business Debt Finance in Western Australia

Almost everything in the Western Australian business economy connects to resources at one or two removes. Mining and energy services, engineering, fabrication, labour hire, camp catering, transport, plant hire and the trades that build and maintain all of it. Perth's construction and professional services sectors move with the same cycle, a little later. Agriculture in the Wheatbelt and the south-west runs on its own seasonal rhythm alongside it.

Cyclical economies produce a specific kind of debt problem. Businesses gear up for a contract that runs for three years, then face a gap. Equipment bought at the top of a cycle still has to be paid for at the bottom of it. Owners who have been through more than one of these know the shape of it. That does not make the compounding any slower.

What we see most often in WA files

• Equipment and plant finance spread across four or five funders with no single repayment view
• A BAS and PAYG position that slipped during a contract gap and never fully recovered
• Superannuation guarantee arrears, which carry personal exposure for directors
• Short-term unsecured lending taken to bridge a payment cycle and then rolled
• FIFO household income used to prop up a business, which quietly puts the home at risk anyway

Subcontractor payment terms make it worse. A tier one contractor pays on its own schedule and holds retention until practical completion, while a subcontractor's wages, fuel and plant repayments run weekly. Western Australian labour costs are also among the highest in the country in the trades that resources work draws on, so a payroll gap becomes a large number quickly.

Payroll tax, land tax and duty in Western Australia are administered by RevenueWA. Labour hire and contracting structures are a frequent source of surprise assessments, because the treatment of contractors and grouped entities is not always what an owner assumed when the arrangement was set up. If an assessment has landed and you disagree, take it to your accountant or a registered tax agent. If it is correct and it is unaffordable, that is a finance conversation, and lenders generally treat it in the same category as ATO arrears.

Grouping is the other trap. Related entities can be assessed together for payroll tax even where the owner regards them as separate businesses, and the assessment can arrive well after the wages were paid.

Western Australia has more capital tied up in plant per business than almost anywhere. Excavators, prime movers, trailers, crushing and screening gear, workshop equipment. When that plant is owned outright or close to it, refinancing it can release working capital without touching the family home. It will not suit every situation, and it is not free, but it is a genuine option that gets overlooked.

The same applies to consolidating equipment facilities. Five separate agreements with five different funders, five different end dates and five different balloon positions is an administrative burden and usually a more expensive one than it needs to be. Bringing them together is often the simplest improvement available to a business before anyone talks about property.

Timing matters on plant as well. Refinancing an asset late in its working life is harder and more expensive than doing it while there is still useful term left, and residual payments are much easier to deal with before they fall due than in the month they do.

We are in Port Melbourne, which puts us two or three hours ahead of Perth depending on the season. In practice that works in a WA client's favour. Documents lodged with a lender first thing eastern time are in the queue before the Perth working day starts, and we hold early afternoon slots specifically for WA calls so you are not talking to us at the end of our day.

1. 01

   Call

   A straight conversation about what is owed and what is urgent.

2. 02

   Assemble

   Secure upload of statements, BAS, ATO history, financials and asset schedules.

3. 03

   Structure

   Property, plant, or both, matched to lenders with genuine appetite.

4. 04

   Settle

   Payouts arranged and managed, with each creditor cleared at settlement.