Financial planners will be able to provide tax-related advice to clients, and charge a fee for the privilege, after the ATO ignored opposition from tax professionals to approve the move.
The ATO issued a final determination last week, allowing people other than tax agents to charge a fee for providing tax advice, as long as the advice is part of another service, such as the development of a financial plan.
The new ruling confirms a draft determination issued by the tax office last year, which had been vehemently opposed by some tax professionals.
Last month, the president of the Tax Institute of Australia, Neil Earle, told Money Management he was lobbying to block the move, arguing that planners should be “regulated as tax agents” if they wanted to give tax advice.
However, planners will not be able to profit from lodging tax returns on behalf of clients as part of the changes. The determination gives advisers the right to provide tax advice only if it is incidental to the financial planning process and as long as they are not “acting as a taxpayer’s representative”.
The Financial PlanningAssociation welcomed the announcement. Chief executive Kerrie Kelly said tax advice had to be recognised as an essential part of the financial planning process.
“Consumers have total protection under the FSRA for tax advice provided by financial planners in the context of a financial plan, and this fact has been recognised by the final determination,” she said.
