Confusion over new requirements for tax bookkeepers

Confusion has broken out around the requirements that bookkeepers who prepare Business Activity Statements will need to meet to become registered under the Federal Government’s new registration regime for tax agents.

Assistant Treasurer Senator Nick Sherry released the final draft of the regulations for the for the new national tax agents system. The new system will require bookkeepers who prepare BAS statements to register with a new national board.

A transition period will run for two years, after which all registered BAS bookkeepers will be required to hold the Certificate IV bookkeeping qualification.

The new regulations have been largely welcomed by Matthew Addison, executive director of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, despite the fact bookkeepers costs could rise by as much as 40% due to the new requirements.

“This system is setting up a really good structure for the financial services sector. We now have professional benchmarks for the sector,” he says.

But there is some confusion in the sector about the qualifications BAS bookkeepers will require to achieve registration. There are essentially three ways to become registered:

• Hold an appropriate Cert IV qualification and have undertaken at least 1,400 hours of relevant experience in the preceding three years;
• Be a member of a registered professional association (membership of which requires the bookkeeper to hold a Cert IV qualification) and have 1,000 hours of experience;
• Be a member of a bookkeepers association (membership of which requires the bookkeeper to hold a Cert IV qualification) and have 1,400 hours of experience.

Despite these three paths to registration, Addison is concerned about what he calls “self-serving” communication from some bookkeeping bodies and training organsiation which suggests that BAS bookkeepers must be a member of professional association. He says this is a “furphy”.

“If you were not a member of those organisations but you had the relevant qualifications, you can still be registered.”

He believes some organisation may use the confusion as an opportunity to spruik for members.

“Some organisations will use it as a sales pitch to convince people you need to be a member because then you have an open door into registration. And it’s just not true. The membership of the association is irrelevant.”

Sherry’s final draft of the new regulations also revealed the registration fees tax and BAS agents will need to pay: $500 for a tax agent and $100 for a BAS agent.

Addison says the costs are not unexpected. “It’s better than what it could have been.”

• This article does not refer to Australian Association of Professional Bookkeepers Ltd.