Experience requirement to register with TPB

I'm in the process of completing a CPA course and will be looking to get registered as a tax agent by June 2021. I am required to obtain ''equivalent of 12 months full-time experience in past 5 years'' in order to be able to register with the tax practitioners board.

How is one supposed to get tax experience without being registered as a tax agent? I understand that one can work under the licence of someone else who is already registered?

I have a full-time job that I love and wouldn't want to kill it, nor can I afford to.

Has anyone else on here done this successfully? Any tips or pointers with be greatly appreciated.

P.s. Just scored a HD in my first CPA exam

 

You would need to work under a tax agent doing tax lodgment work. No way around it.

Tax lawyers also have problems registering because of the type of tax work is different to tax agents.

 

Actually I gave them a call and they said that they count a year as 48 weeks, so that's 6.5 hours a week. Yeah I might do something along those lines, probably file BAS/IAS for my current employer over a couple of years and count that as experience.

It might be hard to get a tax agency to hire me for just 1 day a week. I can't rly do voluntary work if I'm not registered either.

 

Just doing BAS/IAS lodgements wont be considered as sufficient relevant experience for a full tax agent license. BAS agent registration maybe.

You will have needed to have prepared a variety of returns including individuals, companies and trusts etc to be approved for a full tax agent registration.

 

Some of the companies like H&R Block and ITP etc also take on extra staff for the busy tax season , although they(ATO) require you to do a refresher course each year on any changes in tax laws.
People do it for a variety of reasons , some will do it to get their foot in the door to the industry,some are a lot older and semi-retired and go hard for a month or two then back to being semi retired.

 

Not relying on this or anything but just in case anyone was wondering, turns out I can do voluntary work even though I'm not registered with the TPB. According to the TPB, It is only illegal if I charge money for it. I've also checked the CPA website, they provide PI insurance cover for CPA members doing voluntary work.

 

Is it still the case where your employer is required to send a letter stating that you have done the required hours.

 

Whats the point here? To be a tax agent full time?

 

Not necessarily, you can provide a statutory declaration and have 2 people who are not related to you sign it. Don't quote me on this, I called up the TPB but they weren't specific. They said that they assess on an individual case by case basis.

 

I'm looking to be able to provide a tax agent service as a part of the accounting services that my future business will offer. Still at the very start here, so I'm not 100% on the kind of services I would offer but I'm thinking tax services would be a good bread and butter service to offer.

 

But what happens when all your staff come to you with with tax related problems/enquiries. The guy that actually runs the business has very little industry experience with tax related stuff.

 

Hopefully with a year of full time experience and access to outside specialists those questions can be answered. Knowledgeshop (believe @Paul@PFI subscribes) pitcher partners network, webb martin consulting, tax banter. A lot of options. But they all cost thousands so dont expect to pay for those services and compete with low cost providers

If he purchases a practice might even hire someone internally who is older who wants 3 days a week. A consulting role. Many younger practitioners are going down that route. Hiring masters of tax specialists for consulting gigs. Ive had such offers.

 

Thanks for those ideas.

 

An update for anyone following:

Recap: I've been a financial accountant in the media industry for many years and I've decided that starting my own public accounting practice will eventually lead me to semi-retirement or at least the ability to work from a remote location.
I could move up the ranks in my current role and earn a lot more but money is not the driving factor, freedom is.

Steps to achieve goal:
1) Move to a public practice role
2) Complete CPA
3) Register with TPB as a tax agent
4) Start own accounting firm in 5 years
5) Build a client base in 5 years
6) Semi-retire

Current situation:
I'm half way through my CPA, have scored an HD in Ethics & Governance, only a pass in Financial Reporting and a Distinction in Australia Taxation. 3 more exams to go.
I've decided that the best way is to just take the plunge and work at a public practice. Sure I'll have to take a massive pay cut but I want to get the experience to enable me to provide future clients with a good service.

I'm looking to work in an accounting firm but I'm not sure what kind of positions I could apply for and what kind of pay I could expect. I'm currently a financial accountant with 7 years experience but I haven't been involved with tax.

The future business I want to run would be more of a ''financial advisor'' for small and medium businesses. Tax would probably be the bread and butter but I'd like to focus on the add value part of the business.

Any suggestions from the professionals on here on what kind of jobs I should look for? Also does my plan look realistic? Any pointers on how I can get the knowledge & experience to get where I want to be?

Many thanks


@Paul@PFI @Terry_w @Mike A

 

I am neither an accountant or a tax agent so am not sure. Try for a job in an accounting firm that also have its own AFSL licence and are registered tax agents.

 

We have employed people with no tax experience but good accounting experience. Unfortunately it can mean starting as an intermediate accountant which is about 60k to 70k

 

Thanks for that pointer, that's better than I was expecting actually. I was expecting to have to start all over again as a graduate accountant or a junior on 40k.

 

@Invest_noob

Firstly congratulations on taking steps to follow your goals! I’m a tax professional and a qualified CA and wish you all the best in your endeavours.

Running a tax or accounting (or both) business is no different to running any other small or medium business, it’s hard work and requires a lot of determination. Many years experience (5 is probably not enough) in public practice and a TBP is only a small part of what you will need to make your business truely successful.

My advice would be to work for a year or two in a tax practice/team and see how you like it. During this time, try to get broad experience across taxation as you can - in your CPA or CA studies it is truely difficult to see how broad taxation is and how hard it is to be an expert in everything. Some niche areas of tax law include;
-Employment taxes
-FBT
-Div 7a issues
-Transfer pricing
-GST
-R&D
To name a few. Find something you like, that interests you and that you can be passionate about. Most of my tax colleagues are experts in one (maybe 2) of these fields and they do very well but it is difficult to get exposure to enough of these issues with only a few years in public practice as you just won’t be able to get the client exposure. Most of the Big 4 and mid tiers have tax teams that only focus on one or two areas of tax so that they can have “expert teams” across the firm but it also means their staff rarely get cross trained beyond their CPD requirements. I.e I started my career working in a Big 4 Tax team for High Net worth families and spent most of my time consulting on Division 7a issues and wouldn’t be able to do R&D returns to save my life.. Smaller firms can be more broad but can lack the sophisticated clients that need such specific tax advice which limits staff exposure to these issues.

Clients that have the money to pay big bucks for tax advice want experts in their field. It can be very lucrative but clients will also be very demanding and expect value for money I.e proven experience and knowledge. If you just want to lodge a few income tax returns and BAS’s, for SME’s and sole traders there’s some money in that but lots of competition too.

The big $$$ is in tax consulting which is based on interpreting taxation law and applying it to a specific set of client circumstances. Be prepared to have good PI insurance and spend a lot of time dealing with the Australian Taxation Office (on hold, A LOT).

To get you started now, I’d start reading the Taxation Legislation and/ or The Australian Tax Handbook or Master Tax Guide. If it doesn’t excite you, being a tax advisor is going to be a hard grind, it’s very different to financial accounting. Most tax advisors I know do very little accounting and focus solely on tax work and dealing with the ATO for clients.

Hope this is helpful, all the best on your tax journey!

 

@Curious2019 thanks for the detailed response there, you've given me a lot to think about. I actually enjoyed studying to the CPA tax exam and found it interesting.

I think my first step would be to get a job at a mid-tier accounting firm and really understanding the Tax Legislations that I come across.