Episode 83: How to Prepare for BAS and Tax Bills Without the Financial Stress

Welcome back to She's Making Millions, the podcast for powerhouse women ready to scale, lead, and build true wealth. If you're building a business designed for freedom, impact, and legacy, this is the space for you.

Summary & Show Notes Summary: Tax time is stressful  but if you're consistently shocked by your BAS or income tax bill, Taylor says the tax bill isn't the problem, your money management behaviour is. In this candid, no-fluff solo episode, Taylor breaks down the exact system she uses to make sure she always has her tax money ready, sourced from a Profit First–style approach: separate bank accounts, calculated percentages, and weekly allocations for GST, income tax, and employee tax. She unpacks the three most common ways business owners accidentally land in ATO debt, and gives a step-by-step method (including the actual math) to calculate your own percentages from your profit and loss statement.

Key Takeaways:

GST, employee tax, and super are never "your" money the moment you receive them  they belong to the ATO and your employees from day one.

The most common ways business owners end up in ATO debt: forgetting to allocate for income tax (not just BAS), staying in an old tax bracket as income grows, and taking director drawings without declaring PAYG.

Once you're earning $150k–$200k as a sole trader, it's worth exploring a company structure. The flat 25% company tax rate can be significantly lower than escalating sole trader tax brackets.

Set up three separate accounts (GST, income tax, employee tax) in a different bank, and deliberately make it hard to access  no saved logins, no banking app on your phone.

Calculate percentages, not dollar amounts, from your last financial year's profit and loss statement, so allocations scale automatically as income changes.

GST is roughly 1/11th of every dollar earned (~9–10%); when unsure, defaulting to 10% builds in a buffer.

This is a weekly habit, not a quarterly scramble. Taylor uses a spreadsheet to calculate her allocations every single week.

Disclaimer: Taylor is not an accountant or financial advisor. This is the personal money management system that works for her business, shared for educational purposes and always confirms specifics with your accountant.

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