Careers in tax: Career resources

Showing posts with label Career resources. Show all posts

Tuesday, 25 October 2016

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:

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.

Give yourself the edge with free Student Membership

If you're a tertiary education student, The Tax Institute can help you in your career journey. Find out about Student Membership.

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

The best tax industry resources to keep you in the loop

Tax is a dynamic, constantly evolving field where tax professionals need to stay up to date with the latest developments in order to provide clients with quality advice. So where should you go to keep up with industry news? Here’s a rundown of the best resources that will help you stay informed.

Industry organisations

Member-based organisations are a great source for industry news and analysis. The Tax Institute publishes a range of journals and newsletters that cater to a variety of market needs, providing the latest news, practical solutions to tax issues and discussions on tax policy and systems:

Government agencies

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

The Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) website is an extremely useful direct source to the latest on public rulings, determinations, ATO interpretative decisions, tax, superannuation and related legislation. 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 the latest information on policy changes.

Networking sites and online communities

Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and the Institute’s eCommunities offer an informal and interactive way to stay in tune with industry news, trends and important insights from the tax community.

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.

Major tax and accounting firms

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

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 with your own research is an essential career-long practice that will help you lead a successful professional life. The sources provided here will help you stay on top of the latest news, changes to law and market issues to maintain your industry savvy.

Give yourself the edge with free Student Membership

If you are a tertiary education student, The Tax Institute can help you progress in your career journey.

Find out about Student Membership.

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

How LinkedIn can boost your career opportunities

There are now nearly 400 million LinkedIn users across the world. Today's employers are moving to LinkedIn – instead of job boards – to find and recruit top talent. This means that having an optimised and up-to-date LinkedIn profile can help tax students with career prospects now and in the future.

Social professional networks are now considered an essential tool to reach out to potential employers. According to LinkedIn’s Australia & New Zealand Recruiting Trends 2016 report, 40 per cent of surveyed talent leaders say using social professional networks is an essential and long-lasting trend for employer brands to guarantee quality hires. So if top-tier employers are looking to LinkedIn for their next round of hires, it’s important your profile meets the grade.

While LinkedIn may be the online equivalent of traditional networking, the tactics you employ to guarantee success apply in a different way. Here’s how you can attract the eyes of higher-ups from top-tier tax firms with your LinkedIn profile.

Show off your skill set

As with a traditional CV, the skills portion of your LinkedIn profile is an important area that demonstrates your industry expertise. While on a CV the skills may appear as standalone claims, LinkedIn allows your connections to endorse your attributes, showcasing your top 10 skills based on endorsements on your profile. 38 per cent of employer recruiters consider sourcing highly skilled talent as their top priority as we move into 2016. Having active connections offering real-time accolades for your skill set will prove to be a valuable feature on your profile.

Feature any industry-specific memberships

If you belong to accredited organisations in the tax industry – such as The Tax Institute – use the organisations section to highlight your membership and status. LinkedIn is a keyword-rich site, so any opportunity to optimise your profile with relevant search terms will increase the odds of it being viewed by a recruiter or HR manager.

Include tax-specific coursework

As a recent tax graduate or current student, one of the most attractive traits you possess is your education. While a degree is an achievement in itself, it is also worthwhile to highlight any industry-related coursework that could impress potential employers. This might include any on-the-job training or work offered by organisations while you were studying. This section can prove to be particularly valuable if you see yourself entering a niche area of tax.

Join relevant groups

There are thousands of LinkedIn groups you can join. They range from general interest to industry specific and can be a great place to find out about news and changes in the tax industry. Join The Tax Institute LinkedIn group to build your tax knowledge and engage with industry peers.

Being active in groups can also make you more attractive to potential employers who are members. Keep in mind that if you start a conversation, it's important to follow up on comments and questions.

An active LinkedIn profile can improve the odds of your name being seen by potential employers, creating opportunities that have long-term benefits for your tax career.