This is quite a hot topic at present and there is significant misinformation in the marketplace around the rules of operating a company when you are a healthcare professional. Our practice has fielded dozens of calls in the last few months on expressly this point. What has been of paramount concern to our practice is the breadth of misunderstanding in this area.
As a basic recap, there are a variety of legal structures used to operate a dental practice in Australia, including:
• Partnerships
• Trusts
• Sole trader
• Associateships
• Joint ventures
• Company’s
However, the most common structures utilised in practice are:
• Sole trader only
• Sole trader with service trust
• Company only
• Company with service trust
This article will concentrate primarily on the first (sole trader) and third (company)* dot points.