Inhibitors for business structuring for Australian small and medium enterprises

The interaction of the tax system with business entities was an area of academic research for Professor C John Taylor, especially the tax treatment of companies and trusts, and the influence of the tax impost on these. This article reports a study of 48 advisors in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector and explores the factors that may inhibit SMEs from structuring, as well as the techniques used to reduce these inhibitors. The results demonstrate that advisors perceive transfer costs of capital gains tax and stamp duty as major inhibitors, but they are able to use mechanisms to reduce them.