EOFY checklist for hair salons in Australia

Every June, Australian salon owners split into two camps. One camp spends the last fortnight of the financial year in a mild panic: shoeboxes of receipts, a stocktake done at 9 pm on the 29th, and a dryer bought on the 30th "for the tax". The other camp booked an hour with their accountant in May, knows exactly which purchases are worth bringing forward, and starts the new year with clean books and a priced menu.

This checklist is for getting you into the second camp. It covers the things that genuinely move money before 30 June: the now-permanent $20,000 instant asset write-off and its delivery-date trap, the stocktake you may legally skip, writing off bad debts in time, how payday super changed the old June super trick, and the one worked example every owner should see before "buying a deduction". It also covers what EOFY is for beyond tax: your booking and client data is a year of business intelligence, and the owners who run free salon booking software with 0% commission or any decent system have most of their accountant's questions already answered on screen.

One honest line before the detail: this is orientation written for hair salon owners, not tax advice, and booking software is record-keeping help, never a tax system. Every rule below was checked on official sources in October 2026, and your accountant gets the final word on your numbers.

First, the maths: what a deduction is actually worth

The most expensive EOFY mistake is not a missed deduction. It is spending money you did not need to spend because "it's deductible". A deduction reduces your taxable income, not your tax bill, so it returns cents per dollar, never the dollar.

A deliberately simplified example, with every assumption labelled. Say your salon trades as a company taxed at the 25% rate for base rate entities, which applies to companies under the ATO's aggregated turnover threshold with mostly trading income (checked in October 2026). On 28 June you spend A$2,000 on a gadget the salon does not really need:

Deduction claimed: A$2,000
Tax saved at 25%: A$500
Real cash out the door: A$1,500

You have not saved A$500. You have spent A$1,500 on something you did not want, to avoid giving the ATO A$500. For a sole trader the percentage differs with your marginal rate, but the logic never changes: a purchase is worth bringing forward before 30 June only if the salon genuinely needs it soon anyway. Then, and only then, the timing is free money, because the deduction lands a year earlier.

The $20,000 instant asset write-off, and the 30 June trap

For purchases the salon does genuinely need, the instant asset write-off is the headline EOFY tool, and it got simpler recently: the ATO confirms the $20,000 instant asset write-off is permanent from 1 July 2026 for small businesses, after years of one-year extensions (checked in October 2026). No more waiting on a Budget night to know the threshold.

The rules that matter for a salon:

Who: businesses with aggregated annual turnover under A$10 million, which is essentially every independent hair salon in the country.
What: each eligible asset costing less than A$20,000 can be deducted in full in the year you start using it, instead of being depreciated over several years. Backwash units, styling chairs, a dryer bank, a laptop for reception, a hot water system for the basins: typical salon kit fits comfortably.
Per asset, not per year: the threshold applies to each asset separately. Three chairs at A$1,800 each are three full write-offs. One fit-out invoice at A$24,000 for a single asset is not; it falls into the normal depreciation pool.
GST-exclusive if you are registered: for a GST-registered salon the A$20,000 test is on the price excluding GST, since you claim the GST back separately on your BAS, as our GST guide for hair salons explains.

Now the trap, and it catches people every June: the asset must be first used, or installed ready for use, by 30 June to be deducted in that year. "Ordered" is not enough. "Paid for" is not enough. A A$4,800 backwash unit ordered on 27 June that arrives on 8 July is a deduction for next year, not this one. Near the end of June, confirm delivery and installation dates before you buy, or accept that you are shopping for next year's return. If the plumber cannot connect the new basin until July, the write-off waits with him.

Common deductions Australian hair salons forget

Most of a salon's big costs claim themselves: rent, wages, stock, insurance. The ones that leak are the small recurring lines nobody files:

Education and training: colour certifications, cutting courses, business workshops, as long as they relate directly to the income the salon earns.
Software subscriptions, including the ones billed in foreign currency: your booking system, accounting software, rostering app. A subscription billed in euros or US dollars is still deductible; claim the Australian dollar amounts that actually left your bank account, foreign transaction fees included, with the card statements as the record. ViteUneCoupe, for instance, bills its Standard plan from 29 € excluding tax per month from Europe, so the AUD figure on your statement moves a little with the exchange rate; the statement is the number your accountant wants.
Laundry and linen: washing towels, capes and salon wear is an operating cost, whether you run the machine on site or pay a service.
Tools and repairs: scissors, clippers, sharpening, chair repairs.
Card terminal and banking fees: and from 1 October 2026 they live entirely inside your prices rather than as a surcharge, which makes them easy to forget as a cost line.
Professional fees and licences: the accountant, the music licence, industry association memberships.
Phone and internet: the business-use share, with a record of how you estimated it.

The pattern behind all of them is the same: directly related to earning the salon's income, and evidenced by a receipt or statement. If you have been loose with records this year, the fix for next year is structural, not heroic: one business bank account, one card, everything through them.

Stocktake: the night you might not need

Retail product and colour stock on the shelf is trading stock, and the default rule is a stocktake at 30 June. But the ATO's simplified trading stock rules let a small business skip the formal count if you reasonably estimate that the value of your stock changed by A$5,000 or less across the year (checked in October 2026).

For many salons that is realistic: a few shelves of retail and a colour room do not swing A$5,000 between Julys unless you have deliberately stocked up or run the cupboard down. If your estimate says the movement is within A$5,000, note the estimate and how you made it, and spend the evening at home. If you have just bulk-bought colour in June, or you carry serious retail, count it properly: opening stock, closing stock and purchases are what turn your sales figure into a true cost of goods sold.

One related June habit worth questioning: stocking up on product before 30 June purely for the deduction does not work the way people assume, because trading stock still on the shelf at 30 June is counted back as an asset. You deduct what you used or sold, not what you hoarded. Buy stock on the schedule your colour room needs, not on the tax calendar.

Bad debts: write them off before midnight, not after

If a client or a corporate account owes you money you have genuinely given up on, the deduction has a hard deadline: the ATO allows a bad debt deduction only if the debt is actually written off in your books before the end of the income year, and only if the amount was previously included in your assessable income (checked in October 2026). A write-off scribbled in August while the accounts are being prepared is too late for the June return.

The second condition quietly excludes most salon "debts". If you report on a cash basis, an appointment that was never paid for was never in your income, so there is nothing to deduct; it is simply revenue that never arrived. Bad debt deductions matter for salons invoicing on account, wedding parties, editorial or corporate work, where the income was booked before the money came. If that is you: chase it in May, decide in June, and record the write-off in writing, dated before 30 June.

The better fix for no-shows and unpaid appointments is upstream of the tax return entirely: reminders, a clear cancellation policy and deposits where your market accepts them.

Super: payday super changed the June ritual

For years, the standard EOFY tip was to pay the June quarter's super before 30 June instead of by the 28 July deadline, bringing the deduction forward a year. Payday super retired that play: since 1 July 2026, employers pay super with each pay run, and the ATO's payday super rules require contributions to reach employees' funds within 7 business days of payday (checked in October 2026). Super now flows continuously instead of piling up in quarterly lumps you could time.

What that means for your EOFY:

There is no lump left to accelerate. Your super expense lands through the year with each pay run, at the 12% super guarantee rate in force since 1 July 2025.
Do not get clever with a late-June pay run. Ask your accountant which year a payday straddling 30 June falls into, and never hold super back to manage timing: late super attracts the super guarantee charge, which costs far more than any timing benefit.
The June job is reconciliation, not strategy. Check every pay run's super actually reached the funds on time, because under payday super a missed payment surfaces fast.

Wages are most salons' biggest expense line, and the award minimums underneath them move every July; our guide to hairdresser wages in Australia covers the rates and classifications you will be re-costing for the new year anyway.

Prepayments: the one legitimate way to buy a deduction early

There is one clean lever for pulling next year's expenses into this year's return: the 12-month prepayment rule. Under the ATO's rules for deducting prepaid expenses, a small business can immediately deduct a prepayment when the service period is 12 months or less and ends within the next income year (checked in October 2026).

Pay 12 months of insurance, rent, a software subscription or a licence in June, and the whole amount is deductible this year, even though most of the service happens next year. The test from the first section still applies: this only makes sense for things you would be paying anyway, when the cash flow comfortably allows it. Prepaying to create a deduction you fund with an overdraft is the gadget example wearing a suit.

Get the data your accountant actually needs

The difference between a cheap tax return and an expensive one is rarely the complexity of the salon. It is how much detective work the accountant has to do. Before your appointment:

Reconcile the bank. Every transaction in the business account matched and categorised to 30 June. Unexplained lines are billable hours for someone else.
Finalise payroll. Close off the year's pay runs and finalise your Single Touch Payroll data in early July so your staff's income statements show as tax ready; the ATO publishes the exact date each year.
Pull the revenue picture from your booking system. A year of appointments tells you services sold, busiest days, quiet months and how much of the book came in online. That is both the sense-check on your reported takings and the raw material for next year's decisions. With ViteUneCoupe the free plan keeps your full appointment calendar and client database with unlimited online bookings and 0% commission, always; the Standard plan adds the email confirmations, reminders and thank-yous plus ICS calendar sync. Said plainly for Australian owners: it is billed in euros, reminders are email only rather than SMS, and it does not process payments or produce a BAS. It is the record of what happened in your chairs; the tax work stays with your accountant and accounting software.
Gather the loose ends. Asset purchase invoices (for the write-off), insurance schedules, loan statements, the stocktake or the estimate that replaced it, and the written record of any bad debt you wrote off.

If your records live across a paper diary, a phone and three inboxes, EOFY is the annual reminder of what that costs; our breakdown of the real cost of salon software in Australia is also, read in reverse, a list of what the right system saves you in June.

While the numbers are fresh: set next year up

The fortnight after 30 June is the one time of year you hold a complete, honest picture of the salon. Use it before it goes stale:

Re-run your price floor. The new award rates and your real annual costs land together in July; that is the moment to re-cost an hour of your chair, following the method in our guide to pricing hair salon services in Australia. A menu reviewed every July never needs an emergency 20% correction.
Benchmark yourself. The ATO publishes small business benchmarks for hairdressers, ratios of costs to turnover drawn from real returns; if your rent or cost of sales sits far outside the band for your turnover, you want to know in July, not next June.
Pick three numbers to watch. Revenue per chair-hour, rebooking rate, no-show rate: whatever you choose, write down this year's figure as the baseline while it is one report away. Our guide to salon KPIs and benchmarks in Australia covers which numbers matter and what good looks like.
Audit the subscriptions. EOFY is renewal season. Anything the salon pays monthly and uses never is a standing order to cancel, not a deduction to keep.

And if this is all pre-opening homework because the salon does not exist yet, start with the structure and registrations instead: our guide to opening a hair salon in Australia takes the steps in order, GST threshold included.

Frequently asked questions

What should a hair salon buy before 30 June?

Only things the salon genuinely needs in the next few months anyway: equipment under A$20,000 per asset that can be delivered and installed ready for use by 30 June qualifies for the instant asset write-off, and prepaying up to 12 months of expenses like insurance or software can bring the deduction forward. Buying something unnecessary "for the tax" always costs more than it saves, because a deduction returns cents per dollar.

Is the $20,000 instant asset write-off still available?

Yes, and it is no longer a year-to-year extension: the ATO confirms the A$20,000 threshold is permanent from 1 July 2026 for businesses with aggregated turnover under A$10 million (checked in October 2026). It applies per asset, GST-exclusive for registered businesses, and the asset must be first used or installed ready for use by 30 June to count in that year's return.

Does my salon have to do a stocktake at EOFY?

Not always. Under the ATO's simplified trading stock rules, a small business can skip the formal stocktake if it reasonably estimates that the value of stock on hand changed by A$5,000 or less over the year. Keep a note of the estimate. If you bulk-bought colour or carry substantial retail, count properly, because stock still on the shelf at 30 June is not a deduction.

Can I still pay June quarter super early to get the deduction?

That tactic belonged to the quarterly system. Since 1 July 2026, payday super means contributions go to employees' funds within 7 business days of each payday, so super expense spreads through the year with each pay run. The June task is checking every contribution arrived on time, and asking your accountant how a pay period straddling 30 June is treated, never delaying super to manage tax timing.

Can I claim my booking software if it is billed in euros?

Yes. A subscription used to run the salon is deductible regardless of the billing currency; claim the Australian dollar amounts that actually left your account, including any foreign transaction fee your bank added, with the card or bank statements as evidence. The same applies to any overseas-billed tool in your stack.

EOFY checklist for your hair salon in Australia: what to do before 30 June