IB Woman
Issue No. 23 - June/Nuly 2005
Take two
Merri Wiese & Kathy Carruthers
by Penelope Herbert
An old joke suggests people become accountants when they don’t have enough personality to be economists. Thankfully, times are changing and so are the jokes. Merri Wiese and Kathy Carruthers are partners at mhm – a personal approach to business, and although both trained as accountants, their roles within the business are quite different.
Merri has channelled her accounting skills in to the specialist fields of asset protection, tax minimisation, and succession planning. She likes to take a personal approach assessing the individual status, lifestyle, age, business, and family commitments of her clients.
"I consider all the aspects and advise on what approach or structure suits the clients best," she says. "There are different indicators that may alert someone they need to speak to an accountant with my credentials and the first is usually when personal income exceeds $70,000 per annum, as this currently puts someone in the highest tax bracket."
Arranging, planning and restructuring are all words that define simply Merri’s role - words that are usually used in the same sentence as ‘tax’. Merri says that assessing tax liabilities, tax planning and minimising tax are all very valid, and legal, business components.
"Take the traditional family farm," Merri states. "Historically, the farm passed through the generations without reviewing the legal structure. But now it is important to get the business structure right in order to minimise capital gains tax and stamp duty, on transfer of an asset, whilst retaining the flexibility of distributing income and protecting assets. Certain structures have greater advantages for a specific situation than others so tailoring a flexible plan based on personal circumstances is most important."
Merri says the ATO generally supports most tax planning and minimisation strategies as a way to encourage and support self-funded retirees. It is never too late, or too early, to start thi...
