Pathway to TAX Agent
What you need to know
Qualification and Experience for Tax Agents.
To become a registered tax agent, individual applicants must satisfy certain qualifications and experience requirements, which are set out in the Tax Agent Services Regulations 2009 (TASR).
Summary of qualifications and experience requirements.
You may apply to register as a tax agent through one of six options outlined in the TASR (items 201 to 206) depending on your qualifications and experience. The following table summarises the requirements under these items, covering:
Primary qualification
Items 201 to 204 require a primary academic qualification in accountancy, law or a relevant discipline other than accountancy.
As a general guide, if you have a qualification:
- In accountancy, you may find items 201 or 203 most suitable
- In a discipline other than accountancy, you may find item 202 most suitable
- In law, you may find item 204 most suitable.
If you do not have one of the above academic qualifications but have at least eight years of relevant experience in the past 10 years, you may find items 205 or 206 most suitable.
Board approved courses
To meet part of the education requirements for a tax agent registration under certain items, you must have completed Board approved courses in:
- Basic accountancy principles (one Board approved unit)
- Australian taxation law (two Board approved units, one of which can be at an introductory level)
- commercial law (three Board approved core units).
Your Australian taxation law course should include a component in theTax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA), including the Code of Professional Conduct (Code). Otherwise, you must have completed a separate unit covering this component.
You can check if courses and units have been approved by the Board using Qualifications check.
Relevant experience for tax agents
You must have enough relevant experience in providing tax agent services to register or renew your registration as an individual tax agent.What is considered relevant experience
Relevant experience can include work:- As a registered tax agent
- Under the supervision and control of a registered tax agent
- As a legal practitioner
- Of another kind.
For your experience to count as relevant experience it must include substantial involvement in one or more types of tax agent services, or substantial involvement in an area of taxation law to which one or more of those types of tax agent services relate.
Tax agent services include services related to ascertaining or advising about the liabilities, obligations or entitlements of an entity under a taxation law or representing an entity in their dealings with the Commissioner relating to a taxation law. In addition, the service must be provided in circumstances where an entity can reasonably be expected to rely on the service for taxation purposes.
Work of another kind
We may accept work other than:
As a registered tax agent
Under the supervision and control of a registered tax agent
As a legal practitioner
provided you demonstrate that your experience includessubstantial involvement in:
- As a registered tax agent
- Under the supervision and control of a registered tax agent
- As a legal practitioner provided you demonstrate that your experience includessubstantial involvement in.
- One or more types of tax agent services
- A particular area of taxation law
Experience that may be considered under the ‘work of another kind’ category includes work undertaken as an academic teacher in taxation law, and work as a tax manager in a large corporation.
It is unlikely that experience in general accounting only or services such as auditing and insolvency, will constitute relevant experience for the purposes of registration as a tax agent. TPB will assess if an individual has met the relevant experience requirement on a case-by-case basis.