My mother’s family were wool growers a long time ago and I think, as a result of that, I have had a life-long interest in agriculture and rural communities.
Consequently I have worked in agribusiness and regional business in one way or another for most of my working life. In the early days I worked for a large, iconic, agricultural equipment manufacturer and later moved closer to the coal face by working for organisations directly involved with wheat, other grains and oil seeds, cotton and more recently sugar and cattle.
I graduated with a business studies degree in 1977 and in that year became a member of The Australian Society of CPAs. For the past 19 years I have been a “Fellow” of the society or FCPA. I am also a “Fellow” of The Tax Institute.
Fourteen years ago I decided to go into private practice as an accountant. It was a long standing wish to do so but honestly I didn’t think I would ever happen. I was pretty much tied up in the work I was doing which demanded my full attention. There was not much time to think of anything else to do with my career.
When the opportunity came I knew that the time was right and now I realize that I should have done it much sooner.
I love the opportunity it gives me to work with people from all walks of life. There are hard-working employees who just want someone to help guide them through the sometimes intricate aspects of completing a tax return to helping to improve their knowledge about tax matters relevant to them. Sometimes they have investments in real estate or shares and need to understand what their tax obligations are and how the tax rules work.
I also have clients who are small business people. They can be sole traders, in partnership with others (normally husband and wife) or they might operate their business through a private company or one of the trust structures.
Small business people usually need assistance in navigating the regulatory system so that they can safely and effectively, manage and grow their enterprise.
How can they be expected to know everything about their particular business and also be an expert on such things as Fringe Benefits Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Goods and Services Tax, Pay As You Go, Division 7A Loans, Superannuation Guarantee etc etc.
I also have clients who fit into the medium sized business category. Their business issues are quite often the same as for small business but tax rules applying to them are sometimes different.
That is because small business has access to a number of concessions not presently available to larger enterprises.
Those concessions have been introduced by government to support small business as a very important cornerstone of our economy and its largest employer.
I would like to thank Andrew McCallum and his team at Ruralco for inviting me to write a column for their new magazine “Smart Move”. It will be a pleasure to work with them and to write for you over the coming months. I hope my comments are useful as I try to provide information relevant to your business and or personal business decisions.
My articles won’t provide advice about particular investments. I am not permitted by law to do that. Maybe however, I can help with useful comment so that you will be better equipped to make those decisions yourself or for when you have discussions with your financial adviser.

~ Ian Sharpe