Smart Financial Planning for Australian Childcare Centres: Your EOFY Checklist

As childcare costs rise and funding pressures persist, running a centre takes more than passion — it takes precision. Revenue is heavily regulated and partly subsidised through the Child Care Subsidy, costs are dominated by award wages, and the compliance load never lets up. The end of the financial year on 30 June is the one fixed point where smart operators stop, take stock, and set the centre up for the year ahead. This checklist from Trinity Accounting Practice is built for Australian long day care, OSHC and family day care operators, to use in the run-up to 30 June and in the conversation with your accountant straight after.

It is organised the way money actually moves in an Australian childcare business: tax planning, deductions, superannuation, compliance, employee benefits, the numbers that run the business, state-by-state nuances, and exit planning. Work through it section by section. Most operators find six to ten items that need attention on a first pass — that is normal.

1. Tax planning and a proactive year-end review

The single most valuable thing you can do before 30 June is book a planning meeting with your accountant or registered tax agent — before year-end, not after. Once the financial year closes, most planning levers are gone. A pre-30-June review looks at your projected taxable income for the year, your business structure, and the timing decisions that are still open to you.

• Review your PAYG instalments. If your centre’s income has shifted, your pay-as-you-go instalments may be too high (tying up cash) or too low (building a debt that lands at lodgement). Vary them through your activity statement if the numbers no longer fit. Key timing: before your next BAS or IAS is due.
• Project your full-year position. With CCS revenue, occupancy and wage costs modelled to 30 June, you can see the tax outcome while there is still time to act on it. Key timing: book the meeting by mid-June.

2. Maximise deductions and the instant asset write-off

Capturing every legitimate deduction is where most centres leave money on the table. The big-ticket item for the 2025–26 year is the instant asset write-off.

• Instant asset write-off — $20,000, ending 30 June 2026. If your aggregated annual turnover is under $10 million, you can immediately deduct the business-use portion of eligible assets costing less than $20,000 each, where the asset is first used or installed ready for use between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026. It applies per asset, so multiple items can qualify — new playground equipment, kitchen appliances, IT, furniture, sleep mats. The Government announced in the 2026–27 Federal Budget that it will make the $20,000 threshold a permanent feature from 1 July 2026 (announced, not yet law) — but the per-asset, before-30-June timing discipline still applies each year. Key timing: installed ready for use by 30 June.
• Consider prepaying expenses. Small businesses can generally bring forward a deduction by prepaying expenses such as rent, insurance, subscriptions or training where the service period is 12 months or less and ends in the next income year. Key timing: paid before 30 June.
• Capture every allowable business expense. Educational consumables, NQF and ACECQA-related professional development, software subscriptions (your CCS, enrolment and accounting systems), vehicle costs for genuine business travel, and home-office costs where you genuinely run admin from home. Keep the substantiation. Key timing: 30 June.
• Write off bad debts and obsolete stock. Genuinely unrecoverable parent fee debts and written-off equipment can generally be deducted — but the decision and the write-off must be documented before year-end.

3. Superannuation and owner remuneration strategy

Super is both a major cost line and a planning opportunity, and the rules are moving.

• Super guarantee is now 12%. From 1 July 2025 the SG rate reached 12% of ordinary time earnings — the top of the legislated schedule. Make sure your payroll and rosters are costed at 12%, not last year’s 11.5%.
• Pay June quarter super early to claim it this year. Employer super is only deductible in the year it is received by the fund. To claim the June quarter contributions in 2025–26, they need to be paid and received well before 30 June — allow for clearing-house processing time. Key timing: pay by mid-to-late June.
• Owner contributions and the concessional cap. The concessional (before-tax) contributions cap is $30,000 for 2025–26 and the non-concessional cap is $120,000. Carry-forward of unused concessional cap may be available if your total super balance is under the threshold. Whether and how much to contribute is a personal decision for you and your licensed financial adviser. Key timing: contribution received by the fund before 30 June.
• Get ready for Payday Super (from 1 July 2026). From 1 July 2026, super must be paid at the same time as wages, with contributions reaching the fund within seven business days of payday — replacing quarterly payments. For a wage-heavy childcare roster this compresses the cash cycle materially. Model it now. Key timing: systems ready before 1 July 2026.
• Review owner salary, drawings and structure. If you operate through a company or trust, confirm directors’ fees, drawings and trust distributions are structured correctly and documented before year-end — particularly any loans between the business and its owners (see Division 7A below).

4. Charitable and DGR contributions

Donations of $2 or more to organisations with deductible gift recipient (DGR) status are generally deductible to the business or to you personally. Many centres support local schools, community groups or charities — track those contributions and confirm the recipient’s DGR status (you can check on the ABN Lookup register). In-kind donations have specific rules, so confirm the treatment. Key timing: 30 June.

5. Compliance and reducing audit risk

• Keep records for at least five years. The ATO generally requires business records — invoices, contracts, payroll and super records, CCS reconciliations — to be kept for five years, and longer in some situations. Digital copies are fine if they are true and clear reproductions.
• Document related-party transactions at arm’s length. Rent paid to a related landlord, management fees between related entities, or loans to owners must be properly documented and on commercial terms. Division 7A in particular catches loans, payments or forgiven debts from a private company to its shareholders or their associates — get the loan agreements and minimum repayments right before lodgement, or the amount can be treated as an unfranked dividend.
• Check your contractor classifications. Relief educators, cleaners and trades engaged as “contractors” may be employees for super or PAYG purposes. Even genuine contractors can be entitled to super guarantee if the contract is wholly or principally for their labour. Misclassification is a common and expensive finding. Key timing: review before year-end payroll finalisation.
• Finalise Single Touch Payroll (STP). Your STP finalisation declaration for the 2025–26 year is generally due by 14 July — get payroll reconciled before then so employees’ income statements are correct.

6. Employee benefits and FBT

Review any non-cash benefits provided to staff — vehicles, paid parking, entertainment, gifts — for fringe benefits tax exposure. The FBT year runs separately (1 April to 31 March), but EOFY is the right time to check that your benefits are structured efficiently and that any salary-packaging arrangements are documented. Minor, infrequent benefits under the relevant threshold are generally exempt, but the rules are specific, so confirm before assuming. Staff gifts and end-of-year functions have their own treatment worth getting right.

7. The numbers that actually run the centre

Tax is only half of year-end. The other half is reinforcing what works and understanding your economics.

• Know your break-even occupancy. Most long day care centres need roughly 75–85% occupancy to break even at current award wages. If you cannot state your break-even number, that is the first thing to fix.
• Build a KPI scorecard — five to ten measures. Occupancy by room, parent fee debtor days, CCS reconciliation gap, wage cost as a percentage of revenue, casual-to-permanent ratio, and retention. Measures that explain the past and predict the future. Combine your enrolment-system data with your accounting data so the picture is one number, not two.
• Watch your cost of labour. Wages are the largest line in every centre. Roster against actual ratio requirements rather than habit, and review classifications under the Children’s Services Award. We cover this in depth in our guide to the top 30 cashflow issues in Australian childcare.

8. State and local nuances

Several childcare obligations are set by the states, and they vary widely:

• Payroll tax. This is a state tax with different thresholds and rates in each state and territory. If your total Australian wages exceed your state’s threshold — and grouping rules can combine related entities and multiple centres — payroll tax applies. Multi-site operators are caught most often. Confirm your grouping position before year-end.
• Land tax. If you own the centre premises, state land tax may apply depending on the land value and any exemptions.
• GST treatment. Childcare is generally GST-free, but your inputs are not — which often produces a GST refund position. Make sure your activity statements are claiming the input tax credits you are entitled to.

9. Succession and exit planning

If you are thinking about selling, retiring or bringing in a partner, start the conversation early. Business valuation, the structure of any sale, and the timing of a transfer all have tax consequences that can take years to optimise. The small business CGT concessions can substantially reduce or eliminate tax on a sale for eligible operators, but eligibility depends on tests that are far easier to satisfy when planned for in advance than scrambled for at settlement. We have written on the tax traps in a business exit — the time to address them is well before the deal.

Your EOFY childcare checklist

• Year-end planning meeting with your accountant booked before mid-June
• PAYG instalments reviewed and varied if income has shifted
• Eligible assets under $20,000 installed ready for use by 30 June
• Deductible expenses prepaid before 30 June where it makes sense
• June quarter super paid early enough to be received by the fund before 30 June
• Payroll and rosters costed at the 12% super guarantee rate
• Payday Super cash impact modelled ahead of 1 July 2026
• Related-party transactions and Division 7A loans documented
• Contractor vs employee classifications reviewed for super and PAYG
• STP finalisation reconciled ready for the 14 July declaration
• Business records retained for at least five years
• Payroll tax grouping position confirmed across all entities and sites
• KPI scorecard (five to ten measures) in place for the new year

A Trinity insight from 22 years in practice

The childcare operators who get the most out of year-end are not the ones with the biggest centres or the highest fees. They are the ones who treat 30 June as a planning deadline rather than a reporting date. By the time the financial year has closed, almost every lever — the asset purchase, the prepayment, the super contribution, the instalment variation — has already moved out of reach. The operators who consistently pay the right amount of tax and carry the strongest cash position are the ones sitting down with their accountant in May and June with the numbers projected to year-end, not in August reacting to a result they can no longer change.

What this means for you

• If you operate a single centre: the owner’s time is the bottleneck. A short, structured pre-30-June review with your accountant captures most of the value with little of the work.
• If you operate multiple centres: the payroll tax grouping and Division 7A questions are where the largest risks usually sit. Get the structure reviewed before year-end.
• If you are wage-heavy and quarterly on super: model the Payday Super cash impact now — the move to per-payday super from 1 July 2026 will surprise operators who have not planned for it.
• If a sale or succession is on the horizon: start the CGT concession planning years out, not at settlement.

How Trinity can help

Trinity Accounting Practice provides tax, accounting and Virtual CFO services for Australian childcare operators — single-centre owner-operators, multi-site groups and not-for-profit early learning providers. We run the pre-30-June planning review, structure the deductions and super timing, keep the Division 7A and payroll tax position clean, and build the KPI reporting that turns year-end from a surprise into a managed outcome. You can read more about our work with childcare businesses across Sydney.

Book an EOFY childcare planning review with the Trinity team →

General advice only. This article contains general information current as at June 2026 and does not constitute tax, financial or legal advice. It does not take into account your personal circumstances, objectives or needs. Before acting on any information in this article, you should consider its appropriateness to your situation and seek professional advice from Trinity Accounting Practice or another qualified adviser. Thresholds and rates change — confirm current figures at ato.gov.au. Trinity Accounting Practice does not provide financial product advice; decisions about superannuation contributions should be made with a licensed financial adviser. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.