Accountant for Builders — Castle Hill, NSW 2154

Castle Hill is a knockdown-rebuild and renovation market. Your accountant should understand it.

Castle Hill sits at the centre of the Hills Shire: big blocks, a lot of housing from the 1970s and 80s that owners are now replacing rather than repairing, and new apartment precincts around the Showground and Castle Towers since the Metro opened. For a builder in Castle Hill, that means custom homes, knockdown-rebuilds, duplexes and dual occupancies, granny flats and large renovations — and a long list of carpenters, bricklayers, plumbers, electricians, tilers and landscapers who work on them.

Those jobs look nothing like a café or a consultancy on paper. Contract values often run well into six and seven figures. Money comes in as deposits and progress claims. Costs arrive from twenty suppliers and ten subbies. Jobs straddle 30 June. And every one of them needs home warranty cover before a deposit can be taken. A generalist accountant sees "sales" and "cost of sales". A building and construction accountant sees the progress claim that was reported in the wrong BAS quarter, the retention that was taxed before it was earned, and the balance sheet that's about to block your next icare application.

Home warranty eligibility on seven-figure contracts

In NSW, a licensed builder must take out Home Building Compensation cover for each residential project over $20,000 including GST, and it's illegal to take a deposit until the owner has the certificate. Castle Hill knockdown-rebuilds eat into your icare open job value limit faster than almost any other kind of work — two or three big contracts can push a "New builder" (up to $1.5 million open job value) toward Tier 1, and that triggers a review. Since icare's rules changed on 2 March 2026, most builders up to $12 million are scored automatically from credit data, but moving between tiers or a weak score still means a manual review with full financials. We prepare those packs, test your net tangible assets and current ratio against icare's benchmarks before you apply, and can act for you on the HBCF Portal. More on HBCF eligibility →

Progress claims, retentions and GST timing

If you account for GST on an accruals basis, the ATO treats each progress claim as a separate sale: you report the GST in the period you issue the tax invoice or receive the payment, whichever comes first. Retentions have their own rule that defers the GST until the retention is invoiced or received. On a cash basis you report GST when you're paid. Get this wrong and you either pay GST on money you haven't received, or you under-report and get a letter. We set your Xero up so each claim lands in the right quarter. More on BAS & GST for builders →

Duplexes and dual occupancy: when the builder is also the developer

Plenty of Castle Hill builders buy a block, build a duplex and sell one or both sides. The moment you do that, you are selling new residential premises, and GST, income tax on the profit and the choice of entity all change. In some cases the margin scheme can reduce the GST, but it has to be agreed in writing with the buyer before settlement and you must be eligible to use it. We run the feasibility before you buy the block — land, build cost, holding costs, GST, tax and the margin left over — so you know whether the deal works at today's Hills prices. More on project feasibility →

WIP at 30 June on jobs that straddle the year

A renovation that started in April and finishes in September is half-done at 30 June. Work-in-progress is the value of that unfinished work — costs incurred but not yet claimed, or claimed but not yet earned — and it directly changes your taxable income. Too high and you pay tax on profit you haven't made; too low and the ATO can come back later. We calculate closing WIP job by job using stage of completion or cost-to-cost, which also gives you a real margin on every Castle Hill job, not just a year-end total. More on WIP & job costing →

Subbies, TPAR and Payday Super

If your business is primarily in building and construction (50% or more of your income or activity) and you pay contractors for building and construction services, the ATO requires a Taxable payments annual report by 28 August every year. Lodge it late and the failure to lodge penalty is one penalty unit for every 28 days, up to five units — and a penalty unit is $364 for breaches from 1 July 2026. We capture every subbie's ABN, name and address during the year so the TPAR is a ten-minute job. For your employees and apprentices, super guarantee is 12%, and since 1 July 2026 Payday Super means it must reach their fund within seven business days of each payday.

Utes, tools and the permanent $20,000 write-off

Small businesses with aggregated turnover under $10 million that use the simplified depreciation rules can immediately deduct each asset costing less than $20,000, in the year it's first used or installed ready for use. Parliament made that limit permanent for assets from 1 July 2026. Dearer assets go into the small business pool. We time purchases so the deduction lands in the year you want it. More on tools, utes and tradie deductions →

Meeting us from Castle Hill

Our office is at 204/11 Solent Circuit, Norwest — about five minutes from Castle Hill along Showground Road, with on-site visitor parking. If you're coming by Metro, Norwest station is a short walk. We also have a Sydney CBD office at 309 George Street. In practice most of our builders meet us once or twice a year and run everything else through Xero, phone and email — snap the receipt at Bunnings Castle Hill, we do the rest.

Hills District suburbs we work in