From 1 March 2010 new tax agent and BAS service provider rules have come into force. These rules affect the ability of bookkeepers to provide BAS services and charge their clients fees for these services. Below is a brief summary of the new rules for bookkeepers.
“Broadly, in order to be registered as a BAS agent an applicant must have certain educational qualifications and relevant work experience as prescribed under the Tax Agent Services Regulations (2009).
In this context “relevant experience” essentially means work by an individual as a tax agent registered under the old or new law, or work by an individual which has been done under the supervision and control of a tax agent registered under the new law or the old law. Such work must comprise substantial involvement in providing BAS services.
However, under transitional arrangements certain individuals providing BAS services immediately before commencement of the new law may obtain registration as a BAS agent without satisfying the educational qualifications and relevant experience criteria.
The purpose of these transitional arrangements is to ensure that unregistered individuals and entities that were legally providing BAS services before the commencement of the new law are able to transition into the new law under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009.
Essentially, an individual will be able to register under the transitional provisions if that person was a member of a recognised professional association, a bookkeeper working under the direction of a registered tax agent or a person who provides payroll services to an employer. In these circumstances the applicant will be taken to be a registered BAS agent for a period of 2 years after the commencement of the new regime provided the required approved form is lodged within 6 months of the commencement of the new law. If that person wishes to continue to be a registered BAS agent after the initial 2 year period of registration expires, a further application for renewal of registration under the new law will need to be lodged which will typically provide an additional year of registration.
Accordingly, eligible individual bookkeepers have a period of up to 3 years from the commencement of the new regime to obtain the appropriate academic and supervised work experience whilst maintaining their registration as a BAS agent.
From a practical perspective this means that an independent qualified bookkeeper has 3 years to obtain a Certificate IV Financial Services (Accounting or Bookkeeping) qualification, successfully complete a Board approved GST/BAS course and undertaken at least 1,400 hours of supervised relevant experience. Where the individual is a member of a recognised tax agent association such as CPA Australia or Institute of Chartered Accountants the amount of supervised relevant experience required for supervision is reduced to 1,000 hours”.
Note, just recently it was also announced that professional indemnity insurance is also required for BAS service providers.
These rules are the biggest shakeup in bookkeeping/BAS services since the introduction of GST and will cause some bookkeepers to become more professional; some to become employees of their clients or stop providing those services going forward.
