Tax information to keep you in the loop

Tax is a dynamic, constantly evolving field where professionals need to stay up to date with the latest developments, so they can provide clients with quality advice.

Where do you go to keep up with relevant news? Here’s a rundown of resources that will help you stay informed.

Professional associations

Member-based associations can be great sources of news and analysis. Depending on your background, you might begin with the websites of organisations like CPA Australia, Chartered Accountants Australia or The Law Council of Australia.

The Tax Institute publishes journals and newsletters that cater to a variety of needs, providing important insights on tax issues and discussions on tax policy and systems.

They include:

• Taxation in Australia
• TaxVine
• The Tax Specialist
• Australian Tax Forum
• TaxWise News
• ConTax Newsletter

Government agencies

Visit the sites of the federal and state government agencies and subscribe to their mailing lists for news on laws, rulings and policy issues.

The website of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is an extremely useful direct source of the latest information on public rulings, determinations, ATO interpretative decisions, tax, superannuation and related legislation. Subscribe to the ATO’s Tax professionals newsletter for a weekly email summary of industry issues. Become familiar with the website’s content as part of building your own research practice.

The Treasury, as the government’s central policy agency for whole-of-economy issues including taxation, is another valuable resource. Set up an email subscription or RSS and Twitter feeds to keep up with latest information on policy changes.

Industry publications

Take advantage of your university library’s subscriptions to industry publications such as:

• Thomson Reuters Latest Tax News: A daily report on tax changes, ATO announcements, updates on legislation, cases, appeals and rulings as well as summaries of tax issues covered in the national and local press.
• Thomson Reuters inTAX: A monthly magazine featuring technical articles, current tax issues and hot tax topics.
• LexisNexis Legal Newsletters and Legal Express: Bulletins and daily email alerts on the latest cases, legislation and journal articles.
• CCH Daily Email Alert: Covering the key developments in tax and accounting.
• CCH Tax Chat: A free blog on a comprehensive suite of tax-related topics.

Accounting firms

The major accounting firms all publish online articles and commentary on current tax issues. Stay in the loop with an RSS feed, or follow these:

• Deloitte Tax blog
• KPMG Insights
• PwC TaxTalk
• EY Library

Online news sources

Tax-News.com covers news on tax, e-commerce, legal issues, political developments and economic issues for over 250 offshore jurisdictions or tax havens.

The Conversation is an independent source of news and views on a broad range of topics. Join and follow tax topics or set up RSS feeds or daily email alerts. The Conversation provides easy-to-follow explanations of complex topics – this is a great communication style to adopt when providing advice to clients.

Keeping up to date through your own research is an essential career-long practice that will help you succeed in your professional life. The sources provided here can help you stay on top of the latest news, changes to law and market issues to maintain your industry savvy.

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