10 reasons to consider an intensive course with The Tax Institute

Education providers sometimes offer intensive, compressed versions of their courses. It’s an alternative that’s becoming increasingly popular with students, who report higher satisfaction levels because of the time they save with this study mode.

Moreover, researchers over the past 20 years have concluded that intensive courses do no disservice to students’ educational outcomes and, in fact, offer many advantages.

The Tax Institute’s fast-tracked ‘CTA1 Foundation intensive’ subject provides students with tax fundamentals in just 6 weeks, as opposed to the usual 14. Students can accelerate their professional growth and can update their knowledge of Australian tax basics in record time.

Here are our top 10 reasons to enrol in The Tax Institute’s CTA1 Foundation intensive.

2016 duces share their experience of learning with The Tax Institute

Here at The Tax Institute, we’ve always been confident about the quality and value of our education programs.

For additional feedback, we spoke with two of our highest-performing students from study period 3, 2016 - Kelly Venhuizen and Terry Gan.

Lifelong learning – the key to optimal earning

After you have completed a decade and a half of primary, secondary and tertiary education, it can be tempting to call it quits when it comes to further tax training.

However, if you’re smart enough to make it to the end of a university degree, you’re probably also smart enough to realise that taking it easy is, eventually, a recipe for career and income stagnation.

Exam day tips to achieve the best results

Exam day has arrived.

You may feel ready, or you may not. Whatever the case, there’s no more time left to study. However, there are still a number of things you can do to ensure you achieve the best marks possible.

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.

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.

7 tips to leverage your training strategy

Are you looking to create a strong training strategy in your team?

We have provided seven tips to help you prepare and implement a successful training strategy.
1. Listen to your team
In order to determine your teams training needs, talk with your team, get their feedback and try to work out from a practical sense any trends that are happening that need addressing.

2. Reward and encourage post-training
To have a successful training strategy you need to ensure that the team implements their learning. It is always good to recognise those who show initiative in implementing the training and reward them in various ways.

3. Conduct a skills-gap analysis
If the organisation is going to spend money on training, they will need to identify the return on their investment. Write down how the training will impact the team productivity and that it would be a worthwhile exercise.

4. Keep your program regular and fresh
With the changes in the profession and technology, training is best implemented on a regular basis rather than annually. This will provide the team with up-to-date knowledge and career satisfaction that they know their job and capabilities are growing. If you do not have the resources internally, it is always good to look externally such as monthly tax update webinars [hyperlink].

5. Create the right mix of technical and non-technical training
Having a right mix is crucial. If you provide too much technical training, you will not provide your team with the time to absorb all the details and more importantly, they will not have the time to implement this in the workplace.

6. Customise training via feedback and suggestions
To identify this, it is always good to have a meeting with the team, whether it be a few weeks or a few months in.

7. Collaborate and keep training consistent
By providing consistency, this will reinforce the training and ensure that the team absorbs the information. This can be done in break out training or team meetings which are dedicated to discussing the weeks training topic.

To find out more about how you can utilise The Tax Institute’s applied tax training for your company, please contact Anil Fernandez via email anilfernandez@taxinstitute.com.au or call (02) 8223 0069.

Otherwise, jump onto the website for further information taxinstitute.com.au/education or call 1300 TAX EDU (1300 829 338).

“Why do you want a career in tax?”

You've polished off your postgraduate tax training and landed an interview for a dream position with a leading tax firm that could launch your career. Then comes the inevitable question: “Why do you want a career in tax?” Here are a few helpful responses to keep in your back pocket that should impress your future employer much more than: “Because I want to make heaps of money.”

1. “Because tax is one of the all-pervading certainties of life.”

Taxation profoundly affects individuals, organisations and nations, so you may wish to point out that you’re excited to work in the tax industry because of its impact on pretty much every field of human endeavour. Anthonius Lukito completed a CTA2 Advanced course at The Tax Institute and says it gave him the chance to learn more about the things that make the tax system, and hence individual businesses and the wider economy, tick. “The most valuable aspect of the CTA2 Advanced course is that you get to know the rationale and insight behind a tax law,” he says. “Being able to understand how the tax law applies in a practical situation is another valuable aspect of the course.”

2. “Because it’s exciting – at least to me.”

Okay, this isn’t something the general public is likely to understand, but remember you’re almost certainly talking to another person who actually enjoys doing complicated calculations and filling out forms in order to achieve a certain result. So there’s no harm showing a bit of enthusiasm about the career you’re one the cusp of kick-starting. “There’s never a dull moment in tax!” says Eve Starina, a business advisory services supervisor at HLB Mann Judd and a member of The Tax Institute. “While the majority of my time is spent preparing or reviewing financial statements, income tax returns, BAS or FBT returns, occasionally I also have the opportunity to assist clients with tax planning and other matters.”

A career in tax could see you handling the taxation affairs of some of the world's biggest companies, helping small to medium businesses achieve their growth targets or even shaping the tax system itself through policy work with organisations like the Australian Tax Office. What’s not to love about that kind of work?

3. “Because I want to help others.”

Not everyone can be a fireman or aid worker and, while it may not be widely recognised, there is something noble in helping individuals and businesses better understand and navigate the tax system. “My most satisfying moments are helping others with tax questions – whether small or large questions – and helping them to grow their knowledge,” says Juanita Sands, a senior analyst at Deloitte Private Pty Ltd and member of the Victorian Tax Technical Committee. “[I enjoy] 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.”

There is nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy a well-paid, white-collar career, but if you’re looking to impress interviewers, it’s in your interests to make clear you’re keen on the tax industry for more than just the salary.


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

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Tax can take you to the top

They say only two things in life are certain: death and taxes. But with a postgraduate tax qualification, such as a Graduate Diploma in Applied Tax Law from The Tax Institute, you can add a third to that second certainty: a range of diverse and interesting career options. Here are just a few.

Get political

A solid understanding of the tax system is a good grounding for aspiring politicians. Long before she was spending her days defending Medicare changes and fielding questions from journalists, Minister for Health Sussan Ley studied a Master of Taxation law. On the other side of the chamber, former Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury undertook postgraduate tax law – studies which led to a senior associate in taxation law position with the corporate law firm Blake Dawson before he entered parliament.

Join the Big Four

After a challenging period post-GFC, Australia's big four auditing firms – Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Ernst & Young – are eyeing growth in consulting services to drive revenue growth. No doubt they’ll be looking for go-getters with advanced tax training to help them hit their targets.

Scale the corporate ladder

Taxation knowledge can be your ticket to the top in the corporate world. A Master of Taxation helped Mark Weinberger become global chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young – and that's after he served as the Assistant Secretary for tax policy of the US Treasury.

Shape the economy

There are few things that have such an impact on a nation’s economy and its citizens as its taxation system. Granted, you may not get the respect or remuneration offered in other fields, but if you use your postgraduate tax course to get a job with the Australian Tax Office (which runs a graduate program), you will have the satisfaction of knowing you’re playing a vital role in shaping Australia’s economy.

One other thing to remember is that a postgraduate tax qualification could be your passport to travel the world. Harry Tonino, for example, worked on four continents after getting a Master of Taxation and ended up as International Tax Expert at the UN, where he spends his workdays undertaking tasks such as negotiating tax treaties.

So if you’re struggling to find the motivation to undertake further tax training, consider this: that tax course you complete might just be a stepping stone to the CEO suite, the Lodge or a top job at the UN.


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

Find out more

Weighing up face-to-face versus distance studying

Deciding to pursue postgraduate tax training or a Master of Taxation? Should you study in-house or via distance education? We look at some of the things you might want to consider before making your decision.

Planning

Face-to-face learning relies on a prescribed schedule. And for some, that's a good thing. Being able to diarise and stick to a given timetable has its benefits. An established teaching structure means that learning and assessments are paced, can be planned for and must take priority. For those who have a tendency to procrastinate, face-to-face learning can help avoid backlogs.

However, some prefer the flexibility of being able to schedule their own learning – they can slot in studying when it’s convenient and take control of their education. Tax courses taught online, like the Graduate Diploma of Applied Tax Law, offer that flexibility, with the only requisite being access to the internet. No longer are geography and other commitments barriers to advancing your career through education.

Focus

For some, classroom environments are conducive to positive studying outcomes, and face-to-face learning can be specifically structured to enhance focus and concentration. Attending lectures in person may help to avoid interruptions, distractions and delays to educational progression.

Others prefer the comfort of their own homes or offices when they study, and online studying provides immediate access to education, without the travel or the inconvenience of booking time out of the office.

Eugene Berkovic, director of taxation at GMK Partners, considers this to be a plus. “From an employer’s point of view, distance learning allows students to better manage and balance work commitment and study. This will often make them more productive and efficient.”

Maximising learning

Face-to-face education allows for the opportunity to ask questions, enter into discussions and practise newly acquired skills in real time. It also means assessment pieces can be enhanced by the contributions of your peers and the testing and tweaking of skills.

However, advances in technology mean that tax training online is not a bar to proper learning. In fact, many suggest that comprehensive electronic and printed resources, online support and frequent online contact with tutors can be of such a high standard that they enhance the learning process.

Networking

One of the great bonuses of face-to-face learning is the forging of professional relationships. For Berkovic, networking is one of the benefits of meeting likeminded professionals in a learning environment.

Having said that, distance learning provides opportunities for engagement without geographical barriers through things such as group web/teleconference tutorials, which are designed with participant interaction in mind.

The quality gap between distance and face-to-face learning has narrowed. For busy professionals, distance learning no longer means compromising on standards. It can, however, mean achieving advancement without compromising on professionalism, and that's something worth considering.

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

Find out more

Are you ready to fly solo?

There’s no denying that the idea of being your own boss is perennially appealing. If you’re an ambitious accountant, trading in your nine-to-five job to steer your own workload is sure to feel like a rewarding career move. But although flying solo can offer powerful opportunities to test your skills, knowledge and business acumen, it’s impossible to sustain your own practice unless you make an effort to prepare.

Supercharge your skills and knowledge

When working for an agency, you have access to colleagues and resources to solve problems and issues that feel out of reach. But when you’re self-employed, you won’t have the luxury of depending on this kind of support. Enrolling in a taxation course to fill the gaps in your skill set can give you the confidence to strike out on your own. The Graduate Diploma of Applied Tax Law – a course that incorporates practical expertise from working tax professionals – is a good place to start.

Ramp up your networking efforts

A networking strategy should be a high priority if you’re planning to start a business from scratch. Whether it’s attending conferences and seminars held by industry organisations, reaching out to prospects on LinkedIn or promoting your services via Facebook, making an effort to cultivate contacts is the first step towards garnering a loyal client base.

Play to your strengths

In the entrepreneurial world, playing to your strengths is often a catalyst for success. While taking the time to establish your niche can feel like it costs you business, investing in the areas you excel in can help you develop stronger relationships with clients and build a reputation that will attract new prospects down the track.

Whether you specialise in offering tax advice to small businesses or help creative professionals with superannuation issues, the benefits of developing expert knowledge isn’t limited to relationships alone. A strong professional focus often makes for a more effective marketing strategy.

Make sure you plan ahead

Every new business encounters ebbs and flows. This means that making an effort to plan ahead – from ensuring you have enough money to see you through slow patches to managing your workflow during high-pressure periods – will help you build the foundations of a successful business.

Although flying solo can be challenging, success hinges on your willingness to invest in your skills. Investing in further taxation education could be one strategic stepping stone that helps you achieve it.


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.

Tax training: How regularly should you invest in training your staff?

It’s perhaps unsurprising that those who spend much of their time assessing the merits of various forms of investment also tend to be enthusiastic about spending to develop human capital. After all, the return offered by a competent, well-informed staff member is obvious enough to have even the most tight-fisted executive reaching for the company chequebook.

Here, four senior staff members from leading accounting and financial services firms explain why money spent on tax training, such as the CTA1 Foundations, is money well spent.

Good staff demand it

Firms seek to recruit quality candidates and quality candidates seek firms that will provide them with the opportunity to develop themselves professionally.

“Our preferred candidates come from the top two universities and we look for graduates who present professionally, have good passes and are articulate in both written and oral forms of communication,” says Anne Goode, associate director at Moore Stephens.

Ross Forrester, a director at Westcourt who is similarly interested in recruiting high-calibre graduates, argues such individuals place a premium on training. “Young staff are hungry for knowledge, so much so that they place more value on a firm that will invest in helping them develop their career than one that will offer them a bigger salary upfront.”

Firms require it

“Accounting and financial services firms are knowledge organisations,” says Forrester. “An investment in staff training is needed to remain competitive in the marketplace.”

While noting all staff can benefit from tax training, Forrester points out that the returns are particularly high for those in the early stages of their career. “Staff coming from a low base of knowledge generate a better outcome per training dollar spent.”

Clients expect it

“Our clients have high expectations of our staff and assume they will be competent tax advisors,” says Leigh Dyson, senior manager at Barringtons. “We invest in training our staff in the expectation they will remain with the firm and develop into technically competent advisors. And while training is important for everybody, that first two to three years in someone’s professional development is probably the most critical period.”

Which course?

There’s no shortage of options when it comes to tax courses, but the Tax Institute’s CTA1 Foundations is highly endorsed by tax professionals.

“We looked at quite a few different courses but found CTA1 is something our graduates could apply immediately,” says Daleen Van der Merwe, HR Manager at DKM Group. “They feel they’ve learnt something, their self-confidence grows and the company is reassured that they’re being provided with a consistent standard of education.”

Many employers claim their staff are their most valuable asset, but the ones who are sincere demonstrate it by providing those staff with opportunities to develop their skills through a range of training options.

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.