Issued: 11 August 2021
Last modified: 11 August 2022
Each Australian state and territory have different financial help and assistance for businesses and individuals affected by COVID-19. Many businesses are engaging tax practitioners to help them access this assistance.
Together with the professional associations we recognise this is an extremely busy time and to assist you, we have implemented a temporary concession relating to your continuing professional education (CPE) requirements and wanted to remind you of your obligations under the Code of Professional Conduct (Code).
As a tax practitioner you may be providing clients with advice in response to various COVID-19 assistance packages being offered by the different states and territories. While these programs are not tax agent, BAS or tax (financial) advice services, because they fall under non-Commonwealth legislation, it’s still important to be mindful of your Code obligations. Especially, how this relates to acting with honesty and integrity, acting lawfully in the best interests of your clients and competency. This is essential to safeguard your registration, maintain the already high standards of ethical and professional behaviour we see from the tax profession and to protect the trust that the Australian community have in their tax practitioners.
During this time, we also want to offer our assistance to you, and assure you that we are committed to supporting you. We recognise you are working hard for your clients and that’s why we have put in place concessions around our continuing professional education (CPE) requirements to provide additional support.
To make things easier for you, we’ve temporarily relaxed our CPE requirements, in response to COVID-19 circumstances, to allow activities which improve your knowledge and skills about the COVID-19 financial assistance packages being offered by the states and territories to be claimed as relevant CPE. This could include attending webinars or other learning events focused on the financial assistance packages.
Where to get help
If you need help with the application of the grants or payments, you can contact the relevant state or territory administrator.
We will be continuing to review our action plans and COVID-19 concessions to deal with changing circumstances in accordance with government directions. Should your circumstances change or your ability to meet your obligations with us be affected we will work with you to get things under control.