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Annual Review: Top 10 legal matters to consider this financial year

Author: Craig Hong
4 min read
24 July 2024
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Key Takeaways

  • To achieve the best results, be proactive in management this financial year by conducting an annual review of your practice.
  • Determine where you are sitting on a number of ‘housekeeping,’ financial, legal, and strategic matters to prepare for the unexpected and be in a stronger commercial negotiating position.
  • Here’s our top 10 legal issues we recommend you review to maximise valuable opportunities that come your way now and into the future.

Get ahead of the curve and prepare for the opportunities that life or business throws at you this financial year. We often find the practices that have the best results are those that are proactive rather than reactive in their management of various issues. With that in mind, we encourage you to invest the time now to review your legal matters to help you ride the highs and lows we see daily when working with our clients.

Generally, practices should be engaging in an annual review to determine where they are sitting on a number of ‘housekeeping,’ financial, legal, and strategic matters. Any practice that does this regularly will see less ‘out of the blue’ problems and will generally find themselves in stronger commercial negotiating positions with a wider range of options than if they wait till the last minute to deal with things or even worse, wait until they have a problem which can be time consuming and expensive.

Here’s our recommended top 10 legal issues to consider as part of an annual review to help you make the absolute most of what comes your way.

  1. Corporate Structure – has your business grown or significantly changed since you established it?  If so, consider if the current structure is still the most suitable and tax effective. For restructuring or preparing for succession, we recommend seeking legal and accounting advice. Even if your structure is sound, it is worth checking that all of your fundamental structure documents are in place and up to date.
  • Supply Agreements – it’s important to review your suppliers regularly to ensure you are still getting the best product or service for a reasonable price. Service contracts on printers, IT and the like need to be reviewed to help you decide if you keep or change them. The terms of these agreements also need to be reviewed regularly to ensure they are compliant with the Unfair Contract Terms regime introduced in November 2023. Breaches of the regime carry significant penalties.
  • Premises – you need to be aware of your lease option terms and the window for exercising those options. These timeframes are very strict and your option can be lost if you miss the exercise window. If there are no options, you should start negotiating a new lease with your landlord or looking for alternate premises. The further out from your option period or expiry of your lease you consider these matters, the better you will be placed to find alternatives and improve your bargaining position. It’s also important to consider your premises’ state of fitout and if it needs refurbishment or changes to suit the stage of your business.
  • Service Agreements – there has been recent significant developments in the application of payroll tax to medical practices. Even though laws are supposed to be harmonised nationally, each State has taken slightly different approaches so you need to be aware of best practice to take advantage of the rulings and exemptions or amnesties relevant to your State. We strongly recommend that practices seek legal advice and accounting advice as these matters can be very technical.
  • Employment Agreements – Employment Law is always evolving and laws change often. We recommend that employers seek legal advice on the impact of these changes and ensure they are compliant. Other employment considerations include any performance management concerns, annual reviews, and incentives for retaining key employees like share schemes.
  • Privacy – ensure you have an up to date and compliant privacy policy on your website and are collecting, storing and using personal information in accordance with your obligations under the Privacy Act. Practices deal with health information, so their privacy and data handling are highly scrutinised and failings on this front can present costly problems.
  • Shareholder agreements – is your current situation fully documented?  It’s best to have a signed agreement rather than a perfect draft, so keep it to the point.
  • Business succession planning – regardless of how far away this event may be, it’s important to consider this when planning and setting business and personal goals. This is a process that the more time, planning and thought is put into it, the better the results we see.
  • Personal financial matters in order – ensure you have and keep your Will up to date when business or life circumstances change (e.g. children, life partners, business changes, planning major purchases or investments, etc.) to protect your estate, wishes and loved ones. 
  1. Intellectual Property – it is vital to ensure relevant trade marks, designs, and patents are all protected. Registered trade marks are one of the best ways to protect the valuable intellectual property of your business. It is imperative that trade mark applications are filed to better secure those IP rights.

We encourage you to reach out to your professional advisory team to help you navigate your way through your annual review process confidently.

The information in this blog is intended only to provide a general overview and has not been prepared with a view to any particular situation or set of circumstances. It is not intended to be comprehensive nor does it constitute legal advice. While we attempt to ensure the information is current and accurate we do not guarantee its currency and accuracy. You should seek legal or other professional advice before acting or relying on any of the information in this blog as it may not be appropriate for your individual circumstances.

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