The state rules, briefly. Bundaberg practices register with the Tax Practitioners Board and deal with the Queensland Revenue Office like practices anywhere in the state; our Brisbane accountants page covers how to show your registration. Farm topics already covered elsewhere stay there: water facilities, fencing and fuel tax credits on our Toowoomba page, income averaging and farm management deposits on our Moreton Bay page, and employers of working holiday makers on our Cairns page. This section is about Bundaberg.
A region built from four councils. Bundaberg Regional Council was formed in 2008 when the City of Bundaberg merged with the Burnett, Isis and Kolan shires. People still search by the town they live in: Bargara, Burnett Heads and Elliott Heads on the coast, Childers and Woodgate to the south, Gin Gin to the west. Council's investment site, Invest Bundaberg, puts the region's agricultural output above $1 billion a year and credits macadamias and avocados with driving recent growth. The local growers' body, Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers, represents horticulture producers across the Wide Bay Burnett, Fraser Coast, Gympie and Central regions, so your clients may well be members.
Orchards and the horticultural plant rules. The ATO lets a horticulture business deduct the capital cost of establishing its plants, such as acquiring and planting the seeds and part of the ground preparation, but not the land itself or the cost of clearing it. Plants with an effective life under three years are claimed in full, generally in their first commercial season. Longer-lived plants are written off over a set period at rates that run from 40% down to 7% a year, usually starting from the first commercial season, and a buyer of an established planting can keep claiming the balance. The ATO also says a partnership can't take these deductions itself: each partner claims their share. Your website doesn't need any of that detail, but a grower with a young macadamia block will look for a sign that you know it exists, and a link to the ATO's horticultural plants page covers the rest.
PALM workers on the payroll. The ATO says an employer must be a PALM scheme approved employer to use the scheme's arrangements, and that approved employers withhold tax at a flat 15% on all payments to PALM workers who are foreign residents for tax purposes; an employer that isn't approved withholds at foreign resident rates instead. Foreign resident PALM workers with an approved employer usually don't lodge a return unless they have other Australian income. If you run payroll for packing sheds or growers who use the scheme, a paragraph on your employer page saying so, linked to the ATO's PALM page, is enough to start the conversation.
How we'd work together. We're an Adelaide team at Ste 3/110 Hutt St and build for Bundaberg practices by phone and email. You send us your service list, registration details and photos of your people and office, and we arrange them into a draft you can look over after hours. You pay once you approve it, and if you decide not to go ahead, there's nothing to pay.