Which area of tax is right for you?

A career in tax can be dynamic, versatile and open up rewarding opportunities both locally and abroad. A multifaceted profession, there are many areas in the industry you can choose to specialise in when you've finished your further tax education.

But how do you know which is the perfect fit for your natural abilities? Here are four areas you can focus your tax training in, the skills and experience you’ll need to get there and the type of personalities primed to excel in them.

1. SMEs

With the growing number of small-medium businesses in Australia, a business tax specialist will always be in high demand.

As a business tax specialist, you’ll need to be abreast of capital gains implications, the latest GST changes and depreciation schedules, as well as the special exemptions and deductions relevant to each business structure and industry.

Many tax specialists find this work rewarding, as it helps local businesses grow and remain sustainable. Keeping up with the constant federal regulatory changes impacting SMEs also means working in an area that is dynamic and always evolving.

2. SMSFs

An increasing number of people are choosing a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) to provide their retirement benefits because it offers more control over investments. Consequently, this has opened up a complex new arena for tax agents to specialise in, providing superannuation advice.

SMSFs are a legal tax structure regulated by the ATO and with strict reporting and compliance obligations. So as a superannuation specialist, you’ll need to stay abreast of any new developments in order to provide your clients with timely advice on the right structure and planning.

With severe penalties for non-compliance, an SMSF tax specialist has considerable responsibility and therefore needs to have good attention to detail and outstanding communication skills, along with a comprehensive understanding of superannuation law and practice.

3. Property investment


A property tax specialist provides advice for investors about asset protection while minimising tax liabilities. You will need to consider issues such as various tax structures, capital gains implications, deciding between holding and selling, renting, cash flow issues, renovations, transferring property and international tax implications as well as tax minimisation.

Property tax can be a highly complex area and laws and regulations can vary widely from state to state. One of the rewarding challenges of providing specialist property tax advice is helping clients find viable and sustainable solutions to maximise their opportunities and return on their investment. Specialists in this area will enjoy liaising with people who are interested in asset and wealth creation, including high-net-worth individuals and wealth-creation institutions.

4. Corporate advice

The corporate tax path may be well trodden, but for good reason – there are many rewarding specialisations in the larger corporate arena, including audit, compliance, consultancy and advisory work, which can open up exciting opportunities for specialists working in this sector.

If you’re one to thrive when given the opportunity to share ideas and collaborate with your colleagues, large-scale corporate advisory work will often have you working cohesively in a team environment, often across multinational channels.

You’ll need an understanding of international corporate tax implications, as well as great time management and effective communication skills, as you’ll be communicating across different time zones with your firm’s offices around the globe. But be warned: late nights and early mornings may be required!

Stand out from the crowd

Tax is a dynamic profession and in order to provide great specialist advice, practitioners must remain up to date with the changing landscape. As a member of The Tax Institute you will be equipped to provide the timeliest practical and sound advice in the area of specialisation of your choice.

Led by tax experts to benefit tax experts, The Tax Institute is the only body in Australia devoted exclusively to tax, and when you join its 13,000-strong community of the most knowledgeable practitioners, you’ll gain access to powerful resources, progressive education and influential networks.


Take the next step in your tax career with the Graduate Diploma of Applied Tax Law 

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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:

• Taxation in Australia
• 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 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:

• Deloitte News, Research & Publications
• KPMG Daily Tax News
• PwC TaxTalk Today 
• 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 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.

Achievements from an international student, Fei Han, in 7 years

I came to Australia in 2005, from China, as an international student. After initially basing myself in Perth, I moved to Melbourne in 2007 and graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2009 with a Master’s degree in Accounting.  

Having started my career in Audit at Ernst & Young China, I moved in to a Business Advisory role at Crowe Horwath Melbourne. As a graduate, I was really inspired by a couple of partners. They taught me how to satisfy your clients’ needs and build long term relationships with your clients. They also showed me how to balance their work and personal life. After a number of Crowe Horwath partners left to commence their own practice, Boss Private Clients, I choose to join them and became an integral part of their boutique accounting firm. 

Whilst working here I specialised in business advisory and providing accounting and taxation services to private clients. 

In 2015, I choose to become a member of The Tax institute. Among other things, I found that by become a member of a leading tax association it assisted me with services my clients better and I felt that by increasing my knowledge around tax, I would better position myself to give advice and guide our clients. I became a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand in 2014.

In 2015, I joined Grant Thornton’s Private Advisory division as an Assistant Manager. As an Assistant Manager I manage a portfolio of clients, delegate and review compliance work of junior staff, consult clients on tax matters and manage accounting and business aspects along with other duties. 

Throughout my career, I have continued to work closely with a diverse base of clients, ranging from family groups, high net worth individuals and SME’s. The advice that I want to give to graduates is that to be a good accountant or tax adviser requires many skills besides accounting and tax knowledge. Soft skills are critical in your career development.

If you also with to join a membership focused organisation to assist you with developing your client skills and tax technical knowledge, visit taxinstitute.com.au/members for further information. 

How to prepare for your first tax season

Staring down the barrel of your first tax season? Avoid the anxiety from the get-go with these top tips for getting through what’s likely to be the most demanding period of your work year.

Find a time-management system that works for you

Work out what works for you when it comes to time-management technology. That could be an app on your phone or tablet (Trello and Evernote are two popular options), your trusty Outlook or Gmail calendar, or even an old-school paper wall planner. Whatever method you choose, make sure you use it religiously as you won’t be in a position to squander your most precious resource. Read our recent post about the productivity secrets to success. 

Maintain a work-life balance

This one seems counter-intuitive until you accept that even high-performance engines can’t run at top speed for too long without overheating. Sure, minimise any unnecessary distractions during your busy periods, but make sure you also allow yourself some time to recharge. Schedule a run in the morning or dinner with your partner at night, or just get out of the office and go sit in the park for half an hour at lunchtime. Read about how maintaining a healthy work-life balance can actually help you in your career. 

Learn to say “no”

If someone – a client, colleague or even your supervisor – asks you take on something unimportant or non-urgent, simply say “no”. Or, more diplomatically, palm them off with a statement like, “I’d love to help you out with that, but would you mind if we came back to this down the track? It's a busy time of year and I’m not confident I’d be able to devote the time and attention I’d like to it.”

Get up to speed beforehand

You can think of your first tax season as a very long, real-world exam. And what do you do if you want to do well in exams? You study. In this instance, you want to be up to date on any tax changes well before your inbox starts resembling Mount Everest. One way to keep on top of things is to check out The Tax Institute's Taxation in Australia journal, published 11 times a year.  Along with other useful resource tools, the journal is available to the Institute members online, in hard copy and even as an app.

Keep these tips in mind when entering tax season and not only will you survive, you'll come out a better and more valuable employee, ready to take on whatever else the industry throws at you.

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. 

Juanita Sands’, FTI, compelling story about following your career dreams

Throughout my education I always had a passion for maths and not much else besides reading.  My high school teachers loved telling me I should do something like accounting when I grew up, but being a teenager who did the opposite of what teachers said there was no way I was going to become something boring like an accountant. After starting a maths, psych and law degree, I ultimately ended up at TAFE doing an office administration certificate and loved the accounting subjects and have not looked back since.

After spending 12 years at a local accounting firm, I made the decision to move into a Senior Analyst role with Deloitte. My current role is very broad and diverse working is areas such as:

•  business advisory services – working with small to medium
• tax review of large corporate clients for our audit team, some of whom are listed
• tax provisions for large and listed corporations 
• provide advice for and oversee half of our local office’s self-managed superannuation funds
•  tax advice for our office on a range of areas. To name a few
• Small business CGT concessions – this and super are on of the greatest tax advantages for small business’
• Employee benefits - eligible termination payments, fringe benefits, employee allowances
• Research & Development
• Assessing grant income
• Taxation of trust income
• Deceased Estates

My most satisfying moments are helping others with tax questions, whether small or large questions and helping them to grow their knowledge.  Having people say ‘but how do you know that’ or ‘where do you know to look for the answer’ then showing them how they can get that knowledge.  I found that The Tax Institute is one of my favourite search websites.

I had the opportunity to attend a few of The Tax Institute’s  Tasmanian State Conventions and when I attended a National Convention in 2010 I was given the opportunity to apply for membership at a reduced rate which I took. The resources that The Tax Institute have on the website is great for any sort of tax research and the publications on offer have a great hands on approach to working through complex areas of practice. Membership provides me with access to these and discounts to the many training sessions.

I am currently completing the Tax Institute’s GraduateDiploma of Applied Tax Law and enrolled in the Advanced Superannuation, with Corporate Tax next semester being my last subject.  The Graduate Diploma has been good to cement the knowledge that I already have.

I have now been in accounting for over 15 years and am a single mum to a gorgeous and smart college student.  My daughter inspires me every day.  When starting college this year she was really nervous and concerned about the challenges that she would face.  She accepted the challenge and came out of the first day smiling and ready to take on the world.  This is the way she deals with all challenges in her life.  Having worked full time since she was in primary school and part time while I studied before that I found that work/life balance can be a juggle but is very rewarding being a mum, while working full time.

 To find out more about the Graduate Diploma, visit taxinstitute.com.au/education.

Eva Ewe, FTI. A Tasmanian graduate striving for a career in tax

I joined The Tax Institute because I wanted to equip myself with a deeper understanding in the application of tax law. My firm’s partner also encouraged me to join the Institute because of the access to tax resources and the wider tax community. I am currently part of the Hobart Young Tax Practitioners discussion group. We meet on a weekly basis to discuss monthly tax updates, and a person within the group presents on a topic of their choice. It’s a great way to interact with peers within the industry, from different accounting firms.

In 2009, I completed a bachelor of law from University of Tasmania and became a qualified legal practitioner. However, I decided to embark on a Masters of Professional Accounting in order to provide myself with an edge. In my penultimate year, I managed to secure an internship with Accru Hobart via the Chartered Accountants Achiever Program and was offered a job upon completion of the internship. I’ve been with Accru Hobart for close to 4 years, and became a Chartered Accountant in September 2015. I am hoping to start The Tax Institute’s Graduate Diploma of Applied Tax Law in 2016.

I am involved in tax and audit within the firm. I deal with a lot of not-for-profits and SME businesses. This involves tax compliance matters, providing written statements of advice, advising on business structures and related tax implications, and more.

I’ve enjoyed the learning process I’ve had throughout my career. There isn’t anything specific, but the challenges that have come along have pushed me to work harder in providing solutions that clients need. I always get a sense of achievement when clients are happy with the services provided.

Are you looking for career progression? Find out more about The Tax Institute's education programs and subjects.

A sneak peak into the life of our "Firm Champion", David Clarke

As a Solicitor at Norton & Smailes, the type of work I would undertake on a typical day is varied ranging from providing tax advice in a variety of areas, working on tax litigation matters in the AAT and Federal Court, drafting trust deeds, superannuation fund deeds and amendments to these documents and estate planning and advice on estate administration matters.

I think my biggest highlight was getting my first favourable private ruling for a non-commercial loss matter. It was a great result for the client who was also delighted with our work.

My other highlight was working in a team on a large federal court litigation matter concerning the deductibility of exploration expenditure. Although it was daunting at times, as there was a mountain of evidence to work through and a wide variety of research tasks, it was fantastic experience to be a part of. In the end the client received a favourable settlement before going to trial.

I have been involved with The Tax Institute as the “Firm Champion” of Norton & Smailes, which involves keeping people at my firm up to date with the latest Tax Institute news and events. I’ve always found The Tax Institute to be a great source for tax research, with detailed seminar papers and publications on useful areas of tax. Our firm encourages everyone to join and get involved with the Institute’s events. I attended the Young Tax Professionals series in 2015, which I found really broadened my knowledge base, especially coming from a non-accounting background. 

One piece of advice that I would give to new entrants into the profession is that when you’re applying for a job, do your research on a firm and engage with their particular practice areas, culture and values and address these things in your cover letter.

Thinking about studying with The Tax Institute? Find out more today. 

Member profile: Elise Lee

Employer: WLF Accounting & Advisory

Position: Senior Tax Specialist

Describe a little about yourself

I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do as a career until I finished my first year of University. I had studied a wide range of subjects during my time at University ranging from Catering to Sports Sciences, Accounting and Economics. I knew I wanted a career that could provide me with a good work/life balance. I worked part-time in a restaurant while I was completing my degree and I didn’t want to keep working the hours that went with that kind of job. It wasn’t until my third year of University that I knew accounting was the right career for me.

Describe your current role

I am a Senior Tax Specialist in the Specialist Tax Advisory division of WLF Accounting & Advisory. I prepare advice on a wide and ever expanding range of topics, which have recently included things like:

• Charity and Not-for-Profit establishment, where I assist entities to gain registration with the ACNC and access to tax concessions such as the Income Tax Exemption, FBT Exemption or Rebate and deductible gift recipient (DGR) endorsement;
• Determining eligibility for the CGT Small Business Concessions and assistance applying the relevant concessions;
• Determining eligibility for and assistance applying for the R&D Incentive;
• Determination of the best tax structures for payments and assets transfers on employee terminations; and
• The GST implication of changing business circumstances.

What are your career highlights? 

Completing the tax effect accounting for a large consolidated group, along with a small team of my colleagues, was a really satisfying moment achieved after weeks of very long work days. I also really enjoy going on secondment, either to complete a special project or become part of a client’s team to fill an expertise or staffing gap.

Why did you join The Tax Institute? 

I joined the Tax Institute to gain access to all of The Institute’s online resources and access the member discount for CPD events, such as the Tasmanian State Convention. I also use their CGT Small Business Reliefs and Division 7A handbooks often and look forward to getting the updated versions.

What advice can you give to graduates?

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to do something yet. Your mentor didn’t know how to do it either at one point. The first few months or more realistically years of your career are a huge learning curve. Use all of the resources available to you to find out how things are done, this will give you the basics you need to get started and ask the right questions.

Who or what inspires you?

My colleagues and clients inspire me. My colleagues are always coming up with unique solutions to the different situations and scenarios we encounter. They are really focused and dedicated people who always put in 100%, yet they are able to maintain a healthy work/life balance most of the year.

Find out more about the importance of a healthy work/life balance in our recent blog post here.

What do you do to unwind? 

I like to spend time with my friends and family, testing out the local restaurants and cafes of Hobart, sun-baking on our deck or walking our rough collie Darci along Howrah beach or at the dog park.

Favourite holiday destination?

Camping at Port Arthur or on the East Coast at my husband’s family shacks.