“Hurry! The tax year ends in four days! What can you do now to get a bigger tax refund?”

When minds turn to tax matters, some divine intervention wouldn’t go astray. So I generally channel Australia’s patron saint of tax minimisation, Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer.

“If anybody in this country doesn’t minimise their tax, they want their heads read because, as a government, I can tell you, you’re not spending it that well that we should be donating extra.” Classic Uncle Kerry.

So what should Gen Xers be doing? With just four days to go, there’s no time to waste.

Check your occupation through the ATO website and, if there was some spending you can bring forward, then it can increase this year’s return. But don’t spend money you wouldn’t have spent anyway.

Pre-paying interest for tax-deductible loans (such as margin loans) is often a good idea.

For small business people (like me), it’s not so much about getting a bigger tax return, as it is about minimising the eventual tax bill. But that still needs to be done by June 30.

One option is to delay income. That is, don’t send invoices until after July 1.

The second is to make tax-deductible super contributions for yourself. Money paid into super will incur contributions tax of 15 per cent, versus up to 46.5 per cent if you take the money in your own hand.

Lastly, a warning. Don’t seek tax deductions for the sake of it.

In my opinion, the worst of these “opportunities” are “agricultural managed investment schemes”. They offer big tax deductions up front, but rarely stack up as investments in their own right.

Bruce Brammall is the author of Debt Man Walking (www.debtman.com.au) and a licensed financial adviser.