Construction and trade accountants who know your industry
A general accountant can lodge your return. What they often miss is the detail that decides whether a construction business keeps its licence and its margin: the difference between a repair and a capital improvement on your own premises, how retentions distort taxable profit, when a subbie is really an employee for super purposes, and what the QBCC will and won’t accept as an asset. As proactive construction accountants, we regularly review your figures to check your margins and your QBCC compliance, and we work with you to fix issues before they become problems. We act for enough builders and tradies that these are everyday questions, not once-a-year surprises.
Whether you are a sole-trader tradie invoicing under an ABN, a subcontractor weighing up going out on your own, or a licensed builder running multiple jobs and a crew, the accounting problems rhyme. We match the work to where you actually sit.
Who we work with
We work with residential and commercial builders, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, concreters and landscapers, subcontractors and labour-hire operators, project managers, and property developers. Some are sole traders who want their tax done properly and their deductions maximised. Others run companies turning over several million dollars a year with a QBCC licence to protect. The common thread is that money moves unevenly in this industry, and the accounting has to keep up.
Our accounting services for construction and trade businesses
Tax planning and business structuring
We prepare and lodge your tax returns, and before year end we run tax planning while decisions can still change the outcome. Getting the structure right matters more in construction than most trades realise, because the wrong structure leaves your home and personal assets exposed to a business that carries real risk. We advise on company, trust and sole-trader arrangements through our business structuring service, weighing tax efficiency against the asset protection a builder actually needs.
BAS, GST and bookkeeping
Accurate, on-time BAS and GST, built on bookkeeping that tracks income and costs by job rather than lumping everything together. Job-level numbers are what let you see which work makes money and which quietly loses it.
Payroll, super and reporting for businesses paying subbies
Payroll, superannuation and the reporting obligations that come with paying other people. If you pay subcontractors, you almost certainly need to lodge a taxable payments annual report each year, and getting the contractor-versus-employee line wrong can expose you to backdated super and penalties. We keep those obligations straight.
Cash flow, job costing and advisory
Progress-claim scheduling, retention tracking and cash flow forecasting so you know what is coming and when. For growing businesses we act as an outsourced finance function, giving you the numbers to price jobs with confidence and to borrow or tender from a position of strength.
QBCC licensing and Minimum Financial Requirements reporting
If you hold a QBCC licence, the Minimum Financial Requirements are not optional, and they are where a lot of otherwise healthy builders come unstuck. We prepare the financial information the QBCC expects, from the initial licence application through to QBCC financial reporting and licence upgrades.
The reporting is tied to your licence category and your numbers. A Minimum Financial Requirements report is generally triggered when you apply for a new licence in Category 1 and above, where maximum revenue exceeds $800,001. Beyond that, you are required to notify the QBCC and re-lodge if your Net Tangible Asset position falls by more than 20% for Category 4 to 7 licensees, or by more than 30% for all other licensees, and you must maintain a current ratio of at least 1 to 1. Miss those and your licence, not just your tax bill, is on the line. And if you expect to exceed your approved Maximum Revenue by more than 10%, you generally have to give the QBCC a new financial declaration or MFR report supporting the higher figure before you go past it. We track the thresholds with you so a strong year of growth does not accidentally breach your own licence conditions.
The subcontractor and sole-trader tax traps: PSI, TPAR and worker classification
Three issues catch trade businesses far more often than a missed deduction does.
The first is personal services income. If you are a sole-trader contractor earning mainly from your own labour and skills, these rules can limit how much income you split to a spouse or company, no matter what structure you have set up. Building the structure without understanding PSI is how people end up with a company that does not actually save them anything.
The second is worker classification. Paying someone as a subbie does not automatically make them a contractor. If the arrangement looks like employment, you can be liable for their superannuation and, in some cases, payroll tax, applied retrospectively. We review your arrangements before the ATO or the state revenue office does.
The third is the taxable payments reporting mentioned above. Builders who pay subcontractors have annual reporting obligations, and the data is matched against what those subbies declare. Accurate records through the year make this a non-event.
Why builders get taxed on money they have not been paid
This is the mechanic almost no one explains, and it is the reason profitable builders run out of cash. When you raise a progress claim, that income can be recognised before the client pays, and retentions can form part of your recognised revenue and taxable profit before the cash is in your account. Work in progress at year end gets picked up too. The effect is that your taxable profit can be well ahead of your bank balance, and you can face a tax bill on income you have not yet collected.
The fix is not magic, it is discipline: costing each job properly, scheduling progress claims to match the work, tracking retentions as the receivables they are, and forecasting the tax that WIP will create so it never lands as a shock. That is the day-to-day work we do for construction clients.
Tax deductions tradies commonly miss
At the sole-trader end, the money is often left on the table rather than lost to a licence breach. Tools and equipment, protective clothing and safety gear, your work vehicle and running costs, phone and internet used for quoting and admin, licence and registration fees, industry training, and travel between separate work sites can all be deductible where the records support them. The rules on vehicles and home-based admin are fiddly, and the substantiation matters, so it is worth having someone check what genuinely holds up rather than guessing at tax time.
Construction accounting for the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Northern Rivers and beyond
We are based at 5-7 Prosper Crescent, Burleigh Heads, and we work with construction and trade businesses right across the Gold Coast, Brisbane and the Northern Rivers. Because our bookkeeping and reporting run in the cloud through platforms like Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks, we also act for builders and tradies elsewhere in Queensland and across Australia. Where you pour the slab matters less than whether your numbers are right.
Why construction businesses choose Crest Accountants
Book a chat with a Gold Coast construction accountant. Call Crest Accountants on 07 5538 0999 or send an enquiry through our contact form, and tell us what you build.
Crest has worked with Gold Coast businesses since 1973, and construction and trade is a core part of the practice, not a sideline. We are registered tax agents, our work is done in-house rather than sent offshore, and we quote before we start so there are no surprise invoices. You get the whole package, from bookkeeping and compliance through to monthly cash flow meetings and a Virtual CFO service as you grow. Most of all, we speak plainly. You will get the numbers explained in a way that helps you price the next job, not a lecture in accounting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Any registered agent can lodge your return. The difference shows up in the industry-specific issues: QBCC financial reporting, retentions and work in progress, subcontractor obligations, and structuring for a high-risk trade. Those are the areas where the right advice protects both your margin and your licence, and they are what we deal with every week.
Yes. We prepare the financial information for licence applications, annual reporting and licence upgrades, and we monitor your Net Tangible Asset position and current ratio against the Minimum Financial Requirements so a change in your numbers does not quietly breach your licence.
First, check each subbie has a valid ABN, because without one you generally have to withhold tax from their payment, and check whether they are registered for GST, since if they are not, they should not be charging it. Beyond that, you generally need to report subcontractor payments to the ATO each year through a TPAR, and you need to be confident your subbies are genuinely contractors rather than employees for superannuation purposes. We review all of this, set up your records so the annual reporting is straightforward, and flag any classification risk before it becomes a liability.
Because construction income is often recognised before it is collected. Progress claims, retentions and work in progress can all contribute to your taxable profit before the cash is in your account. Proper job costing and a forecast of the tax that WIP creates keeps that gap visible and manageable.
A construction or QBCC accountant handles the parts of your finances that are specific to building and trade work: QBCC financial reporting and Minimum Financial Requirements, job costing and retentions, subcontractor obligations like TPAR and worker classification, business structuring for asset protection, and tax planning around the way construction income is recognised. It is the same core work any accountant does, but built around how builders and tradies actually get paid.
A Minimum Financial Requirements (MFR) report is the financial information the QBCC uses to confirm a licensee can meet the MFR for their licence category. It sets out your Net Tangible Assets, current ratio and allowable annual turnover, known as Maximum Revenue. It is generally required when you apply for a licence in Category 1 or above, and again when your position changes enough to trigger a re-lodgement.
Net Tangible Assets (NTA) are your assets less your liabilities, excluding intangible items such as goodwill. The QBCC ties your allowable Maximum Revenue to your NTA, so if your NTA falls, your approved turnover can fall with it. If your NTA drops by more than 20% for Category 4 to 7 licensees, or more than 30% for all other licensees, you generally have to notify the QBCC and re-lodge.
Licensees generally need to maintain a current ratio of at least 1 to 1, meaning current assets at least equal to current liabilities. A ratio below that can put your licence at risk, which is why we monitor it with you rather than leaving it to be discovered at reporting time.
Usually, yes. Businesses in the building and construction industry that pay subcontractors generally must lodge a Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR) each year, reporting what they paid each contractor. The ATO matches that data against what the subbies declare, so accurate records through the year make it a non-event.
Often, yes, and the right structure can help with both tax and asset protection, but it has to suit how you earn. If most of your income comes from your own labour, the personal services income (PSI) rules can limit income splitting regardless of your structure, and QBCC licensing has its own implications for how you are set up. We model the options before you commit rather than after.
No. Many of our construction clients are local to Burleigh Heads and the southern Gold Coast, and you are welcome at the office. But we run cloud-based accounting and act for builders and tradies across Queensland, the Northern Rivers and the rest of Australia.
Talk to a construction accountant who understands retentions, QBCC reporting and the way builders actually get paid.
Book a free consultation with Crest Accountants on 07 5538 0999 or send an enquiry through the form.
