How to select a tax speciality

One of the benefits of having a career in the tax sector is being able to specialise in your area of interest. Here’s an overview of some things you need to know before choosing your focus.

A career in tax is versatile, but to optimise its versatility you first need to figure out what you want. Do you want to earn more or travel more? Are there particular lifestyle benefits you're keen on? What about political influence and meeting people? The industry you choose will determine the benefits and challenges you'll have.

Property and investment

Specialising in the ins and outs of property and investment tax issues will lead you to people who are interested in making money, including high-net-worth individuals and wealth-creation organisations.

Great for: Earning potential.

Superannuation

An ageing population, the increase in self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) and the complex tax issues around super all mean tax specialists in this area are in high demand. Expect to handle everything from super tax returns to SMSF structures and estate planning.

Great for: Job stability.

Corporate

There is a wide range of roles in the corporate tax sector – from audit and compliance to consultancy and advisory – and most will involve meeting with clients and working in teams on specific jobs. This environment is very supportive of graduates and you'll find that plenty of opportunities will present themselves, especially as all corporate firms and many of their clients are multinational.

Great for: Travel and international exposure.

Business

The beauty of understanding business tax is that your skills can be applied to almost any organisation, from not-for-profits to sole traders. Each industry has its own particular challenges, for example special exemptions and deductions for artists paired with the instability and breadth of their income streams. Many tax specialists find this work rewarding as it both helps businesses and provides interesting challenges.

Great for: Job satisfaction.

Policy and analysis

Interested in the mechanism of tax? Perhaps policy and analysis is the specialisation for you. A role as an economist or analyst drives everything from political platforms to tax-system reform. If you want to spearhead change as a thought leader on tax, this is your area.

Great for: Prestige and influence.

The tax industry provides steady work and a variety of roles, which is a big draw for students and graduates looking to test their skills in different areas of interest. Choosing a specialisation does require a little research so you can match its benefits and challenges to your skills, needs and interests for a satisfying career.

If you are looking to specialise, consider The Tax Institute’s speciality single subjects, including AdvancedSuperannuation, Corporate Tax, and Tax for Trusts in Estate Planning and WealthManagement.

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Key skills for tax professionals of tomorrow

Recent Tax Institute graduate Justin Quay shares four skills that tomorrow’s tax professionals – both specialists and generalists – require to stay relevant in this ever-evolving industry.

Do what the technology can’t

According to Quay, in the constantly shifting tax landscape, standard business reporting and the outsourcing of more mundane compliance activities are likely to significantly reduce the need for people to fill more administrative-type roles. Add to that the disruptive businesses that are seeking to automate simple tax problems for the broader population.

“To remain relevant, professionals will need to ensure that they possess skills that are less likely to be automated,” says Quay. “Complex strategic advice appears to be a sweet spot and is perhaps a safer area for tax professionals’ future endeavours.”

Indeed, it’s a strong argument for becoming a tax specialist. By specialising, you position yourself as an expert in your niche. You will be in demand, valued and indispensable for your in-depth knowledge. Plus, you can communicate complex tax concepts and answer questions in a way that impersonal, high-tech automated systems can’t.

However, that doesn’t mean there’s no longer a need for tax generalists. It is still crucial to have tax professionals who know the intricacies of the overall tax system because the industry is changing so rapidly. This way, you can help introduce and ease these transitions for clients and companies, as well as meet their many and varying needs.

Keep abreast of news and change

Whether you go the generalist or the specialist route, it’s important that tax professionals stay on top of industry occurrences and trends, especially those elements of tax that are relevant to your role. In Australia, Quay says this also means keeping up to date with the increased focus on superannuation, due to the loss of government revenue brought about by the end of the mining boom and base erosion profit shifting (BEPS). Quay also recommends keeping an eye on potential changes to both income tax and company tax.

Connect with clients

Going beyond what technology can offer, Quay emphasises the importance of client contact for both generalists and specialists.

“Delivery of knowledge isn’t everything. You’ve got to know how to engage clients, because if you can’t do that, you’ll never even get the chance to deliver. There’s no doubt that tax is a very technical profession, but the ability to work with people and gain their attention and respect can weigh heavily on a tax professional’s success.”

Understand tax concepts – both separately and together

There’s no question that tax is complicated. There’s a lot of information, which can be incredibly daunting, especially when you’re new to the profession. The challenge when advising people on tax, according to Quay, lies in the need to understand how concepts work in isolation before you’re in a suitable position to understand how they interact.

“You need to walk before you can crawl, but running is what you’ve got to look forward to, and that’s the enjoyable bit.”

Tax professionals of tomorrow seemingly have two paths to choose from: either become more of a generalist, with the ability to advise on a broader range of both tax and non-tax issues, or become a specialist in a particularly complex area. Fostering such skills can help on both of these diverging tracks.

To find out more about how to achieve your chosen path, please visit taxinstitute.com.au/education or call 1300 TAX EDU (1300 829 338).

2015: What to expect in the year ahead

As commodity prices fall and emerging and developed economies struggle to grow, Australia’s long run of strong growth might fade in 2015. If it does, we could see moves to change the nation’s tax system to compensate for a falling tax take. Right now, the planned changes to the tax system for individuals and corporations in Australia are incremental, but this could change as more details emerge on the future direction of tax policy.

Corporate and business

In Australia, 2015 will see continued moves towards trying to develop a so-called ‘Google tax’ on multinational companies to stop them shifting billions of dollars of profits offshore in efforts to minimise their tax bills. Such a tax is also being examined or introduced in other countries including the UK.

Treasurer Joe Hockey said that the Australian Tax Office is currently “embedded in the offices” of 10 multinationals in an effort to work out whether they were paying a fair amount of tax. The target is to secure an extra $1 billion in revenue over the next three years from the clampdown.

Key dates for 2015

• The company tax rate will fall by 1.5 per cent from 1 July 2015. We will also see the introduction of the paid parental leave levy.
• Fringe benefits tax will be increased from 47 per cent to 49 per cent for two years from 1 April 2015. The benefits cap for public benevolent institutions will also be increased.
• Deferral of the new taxation of managed investment trusts ends 12 months to 1 July 2015.
• The proposed and then deferred changes to the taxation of managed investment trusts are expected to take effect on 1 July 2015.

Personal tax

The current government remains committed to longer-term tax reform and will continue the development of tax reform options to take to the next election through the previously announced tax white paper process. Further structural changes affecting individuals and businesses are possible, such as increasing the rate of GST or broadening its base.

Key dates for 2015

• The fringe benefits tax rate will also be temporarily increased from the current rate of 47 per cent to 49 per cent for the two-year period from 1 April 2015 until 31 March 2017.
• The first home saver accounts (FHSA) scheme will be abolished from 1 July 2015 and will be treated as ordinary bank accounts.
• The Family Tax Benefit Part B primary earner income limit will be reduced from the current $150,000 to $100,000 from 1 July 2015. Part B payments will also be restricted to families whose youngest child is less than six years of age. The Part A large family supplement will be limited to families with four or more children.

Policy and cross-border taxes

The progress report is expected on G20 proposals to ensure corporate profits should be taxed where economic activities deriving the profits are performed and where value is created, including the G20/OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan to modernise international tax rules.

Key dates for 2015

• The international effort to ensure large corporations pay fair taxes continues on 15-16 November 2015 during the G20 meeting under Turkey’s presidency in Antalya.

In the ever-changing world of tax rules and policy, continued taxation education is of paramount importance. The Tax Institute’s Graduate Diploma of Applied Tax Law can help you be better prepared professionally and stay up to date with the latest tax laws.


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