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Tax and what you actually keep
The sale price is not the number that matters. What you keep after tax is. The primary ATO pages, named and linked, so you can take them to your accountant.
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Tax and what you actually keep
The sale price is not the number that matters. What you keep after tax is. These are the primary ATO pages. Nothing on this website is tax advice, and your accountant's answer beats mine every time.
Three boundaries a Queensland Office of Fair Trading licence does not cross
| The boundary | What sits on the other side of it | The law, and what it costs to cross it | The register that answers it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tax Registration under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (Cth) | Telling you what your liability will be, applying the small business capital gains tax concessions to your own numbers, or structuring the deal for a tax outcome. TPB(I) 39/2023 treats a service as a tax agent service where it relates to ascertaining or advising on liabilities, obligations or entitlements under a taxation law, and you can reasonably be expected to rely on it. General published information that is not applied to your circumstances is not caught. | Charging or receiving a fee for a tax agent service while unregistered is a civil penalty of up to 250 penalty units for an individual, which is $91,000 at the Commonwealth penalty unit value of $364 from 1 July 2026, and 1,250 penalty units for a body corporate. Advertising one while unregistered is up to 50 penalty units. | Tax Practitioners Board register at tpb.gov.au/registrations_search, holding registered, suspended and deregistered tax and BAS agents. No fee stated. |
| Law Being an Australian legal practitioner under the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) | Drafting a special condition that changes the legal effect of the contract, a restraint of trade clause, a vendor finance clause, a deed, a lease or lease assignment or a share sale agreement, and advising on what any clause means. Sections 24(3A) to (3E) let a Property Occupations Act licensee complete an approved or lawyer prepared contract by “inserting information, crossing alternatives, or using precedents previously prepared by lawyers”, and no further. | Section 24(1): a person must not engage in legal practice unless the person is an Australian legal practitioner, maximum 300 penalty units or 2 years imprisonment, which is $51,810 at the Queensland penalty unit value of $172.70 from 1 July 2026. Section 24(4): the person “is not entitled to recover any amount” for it, and section 24(5) lets you recover what you already paid as a debt. | Queensland Law Society Register of Solicitors and the Find a Solicitor directory. Free. Practising certificate enquiries go to the Society’s records team by email. |
| Financial products An Australian financial services licence under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) | Bringing the parties together for the acquisition of shares, negotiating the share price, preparing or distributing material recommending the acquisition, or taking a success fee referable to a share transfer. An asset sale of goodwill, plant, stock, the lease, the contracts and the name transfers no financial product and sits wholly inside the Property Occupations Act licence. | Section 764A(1)(a) makes a share in a body a financial product. Section 766C makes arranging for a person to acquire or dispose of one a dealing, and dealing is a financial service. ASIC RG 36.42 defines arranging as bringing “into effect the issue, variation, disposal or acquisition of, or application for, a financial product”, and RG 36.43 weighs necessity, added value and a benefit that depends on the outcome. | ASIC professional registers at service.asic.gov.au for AFS licensees and authorised representatives, and the Financial Advisers Register on Moneysmart. Free. |
Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (Cth) and TPB(I) 39/2023; Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) section 24; Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) sections 764A and 766C with ASIC Regulatory Guide 36, published 8 June 2016, version current 28 March 2022. Penalty unit values are $172.70 in Queensland and $364 for the Commonwealth, both from 1 July 2026. The exact current wording of section 764A(1)(a) was read in an earlier compilation of the Act, so read the current compilation before relying on the words themselves. The proposition that shares in a private company are a financial product holds on either wording. No exemption specific to selling a business by transfer of shares could be located in the Corporations Regulations 2001 (Cth), so do not assume one exists.
Ask what it is worth
Free, in writing, and nobody finds out you asked. Tell me the trade and the suburb and I will do the rest.
Nobody finds out you are selling. This goes to me only, into my own database in Sydney. I will not contact your accountant, your landlord, your bank or your staff, ever, unless you ask me to.
If you would rather not put anything in writing yet, ring 0431 124 128. Prefer to pick a time yourself? Book a time in my diary.
Checked me out? Let's talk.
You have the licence number, the registers and the legislation. When you have finished checking, the next step is thirty minutes and a number. No cost, no obligation, no follow-up you did not ask for.