Career options for tax professionals

The assumption often made about students pursuing a degree in tax is that they’re on the fast track to a certain career in accountancy. Considering, however, that there’s only a finite number of graduate positions available in accountancy firms each year, it’s clear that not every tax graduate will follow suit. So what are some other career options?

Tax-based education grants you a unique skill set: the ability to be a team player, the ability to not be a team player, communication skills and commercial awareness. The junction of these skills means you’re equally well versed in a numerical, analytical or communication-heavy role. In reality, after completing your postgraduate tax training, you are spoilt with a unique spread of career options. Here are five paths you may consider conquering.

Accountancy

There is no denying that the most well-trodden career avenue for recent tax graduates is a role in an accountancy firm. The most attractive roles being those in the ‘Big Four’ firms: Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and Ernst & Young. Large and mid-tier accountancy firms offer roles that cover a large range of tax areas and an opportunity to specialise from an early point in your career. Your tax specialty could lie in financial services, corporate tax, employment tax or tax for private clients, so it’s within reason that this is by and large one of the most alluring prospects for a tax graduate.

Law

Law and tax are often considered to be complementary degrees; many tax lawyers pursue tax qualifications, and tax accountants a law degree. Obviously, this career path is only available to experienced tax professionals, however an additional education resource for the law-inclined is the CTA2A Advanced subject. This postgraduate qualification can be undertaken while working full-time, and works to explain the rationale behind tax laws.

Government financial advising

With a qualification in tax, it’s safe to say that you’re proficient in numbers. Government financial advising merges your analytical and communicative skills to ensure you can best mentor people through financial decisions. For success in this field, work experience as a registered tax agent or tax financial advisory are looked upon favourably.

Teaching

Moving between industries doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your hard-earned skills, clocked hours and valuable industry connections. In fact, you could strengthen your industry ties and reputation by returning to academia. For experienced tax accountants, there are often opportunities for positions from educational bodies, as well as in corporate training companies or specially designed educational roles in large-tier companies.

Entrepreneurial

For the tax graduates who dream of running their own business, the opportunities are endless. Beyond running your own firm, there is also an opportunity to marry two unique specialties into one business venture: environmental accounting, international accounting and entertainment accounting are all niche self-employment routes that offer you a market difference.

Taxation knowledge can be your golden ticket to any number of roles that cross traditional industry barriers. Browse our range of programs and subjects to get qualified for a career in tax.

Career alternatives for tax graduates

An assumption often made about students pursuing a degree in tax is that they’re on the fast track to a certain career in accountancy. However, not every tax graduate follows suit. So what are some of the other career options available?

Tax-based education gives you a unique combination of skills, including the ability to be a team player, the ability to not be a team player, communication skills, research skills, maths skills, analytical skills and commercial awareness. The combination of these means you’re equally well prepared for a numerical, analytical or communication-based role. After completing postgraduate tax training, you are spoilt with a unique spread of career options.

Here are five paths you might consider.

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.

Find out more

Member profile: Christine Palmer

Employer: KPMG

Position: Lawyer

I completed the dual degrees of Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Laws at the Queensland University of Technology (“QUT”) in 2009. 
In 2010 I completed the Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice at QUT and was subsequently admitted to the Supreme Court of Queensland. In 2013 I completed the Graduate Diploma in Chartered Accounting and the CTA3 Advisory course in 2014 with The Tax Institute. I'm currently completing a Master of Laws with the University of New South Wales.
I have previously worked at BDO in the Corporate and International Tax team and the KPMG Corporate Tax team before moving to my current role in the KPMG Legal team.

Describe your current role

As a lawyer in the KPMG legal team in Brisbane I am involved in providing specialist tax dispute assistance, legal tax advisory and drafting tax legal related documentation as well as trust deed reviews.

Describe your involvement in The Tax Institute’s committees

I have been a member of the Graduate Diploma Committee since late 2014.  I have lectured for The Tax Institute.

What are your career highlights?

I have enjoyed every opportunity that has been provided to me.  No one particular highlight stands out but I was particularly excited to join the KPMG Legal team this year.

Why did you join The Tax Institute?

I joined The Tax Institute as a way to get involved in the tax community here in Brisbane and to enhance my tax technical knowledge.

What inspires you?

I have always found tax law fascinating as I see it as one of the foundations of a society and is politically driven. Tax law is technically and intellectually challenging and requires you to be continually learning. Every transaction will have a tax implication and being able to help clients manage their taxation obligations in a commercially realistic manner is professionally rewarding and is why I enjoy coming into work every day.

What advice would you give to graduates?

There are no silly questions but always take an issue as far as you can and have your views on it before asking the question. Have a go at the solution before you ask your question.

What do I do to unwind?

I like to play trivia, read, watch tv, go to the movies, shop and spend time with my family and friends.

Favourite holiday destination?

I love Scotland. It is so beautiful.

Breaking down the proposed new international tax laws

In this post-GFC age of austerity, public anger has been steadily mounting over multinationals – especially high-profile technology companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft – using elaborate cross-border tax structures to minimise their contributions to government revenues in many of the nations in which they operate.

Inevitably, democratically elected governments have become more determined to tackle profit shifting and tax avoidance. In early September, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) proposed a set of draft rules, as part of its ‘Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project’ (BEPS),  to “end the erosion of tax bases and the artificial shifting of profits to avoid paying tax.”

The new normal

The OECD argues that the current situation, which involves around 3000 tax treaties, is no longer tenable, especially given the digital economy that nations – particularly first-world ones – are increasingly operating in.

In order for governments to easily identify patterns of tax avoidance, multinationals will need to divulge to tax authorities all earnings and activities for each country they operate in. Digital companies will be prevented from “inappropriately” benefiting from being excluded from permanent establishment status in a nation and entering into “artificial arrangements” relating to sales of their goods and services in order to avoid permanent establishment status.

As the OECD puts it: “This would be relevant where, for instance, an online seller of tangible products or an online provider of advertising services uses the sales force of a local subsidiary to negotiate and effectively conclude sales with prospective large clients.”

New rules

While yet to be fleshed out, new rules will be developed to embody the following principles. According to the BEPS report:

i) Companies will no longer be able to game the tax treaty system as the new rules will involve “ensuring the coherence of corporate income taxation at the international level”. This will be achieved “through new model tax and treaty provisions to neutralise hybrid mismatch arrangements”.

ii) Transfer pricing will be clamped down on with the new rules “assuring that transfer pricing outcomes are in line with value creation”. This will be done “through improved transfer pricing documentation and a template for country-by-country reporting”.

iii) Already wondering about loopholes in the new rules that could potentially be exploited? Be warned that the OECD proposal calls for “a report on the feasibility of developing a multilateral instrument to amend bilateral tax treaties” in order to “counter harmful tax practices”.

Of course, not all the proposed BEPS rules may be adopted, but given the political climate it seems almost certain that many will. And tax professionals, as well as those who provide tax courses and tax agent training, will need to adjust the way they do business appropriately.

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Five resources for salary research

Salaries vary significantly from state to state and from one firm to the next. Along with starting pay, you’ll also want to find out how much you can potentially earn as you climb your chosen career ladder. For example, while tax accountants and tax lawyers attract roughly the same starting salary, the latter can expect to earn $50,000 more when at the top of their field.

Here are five resources to get you started in your search.

1. MyCareer

This popular job-search website pulls its salary data from positions advertised in the last 90 days. It also allows you to drill down to the relevant sub-sector – for example, under the ‘Legal’ category, you can find the average salary range of lawyers specialising in taxation.

2. Hays

With offices in Australia and New Zealand, the Hays annual salary guide covers payroll trends in both countries. Tax accountant salaries in the ‘Commerce and Industry’ and ‘Professional Practice’ sectors are listed by geographic location, and further sub-categorised according to length of industry experience. Legal salaries cover both in-house roles and top-tier, mid-tier and small private practice firms.

3. Robert Half

Robert Half International publishes an annual Salary Guide containing comprehensive salary information for finance and accounting jobs in Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Data for small, medium and large firms is included under each job category. If you are interested in an in-house tax accountant role within the mining sector, that’s also covered. You can also find out how much salaries have changed since last year.

4. Robert Walters

Now in its 15th edition, the Australian version of the Robert Walters Global Salary Survey looks at both permanent (per annum) and contract (per hour) pay ranges for tax accountants and tax managers, as well as legal professionals (albeit not specific to tax law).

5. PayScale

The salary data on this website – which includes tax professionals – is self-reported by employees, so the figures may not be the most solid. However, the site does give you the option of generating a salary report that tells you how well you are doing relative to your industry peers – in exchange for your own salary data, of course.

Snagging a salary package within the tax sector that ticks all the right boxes can be tricky, but these resources can at least ensure you are coming to the negotiating table with the right information on hand.

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What is it like to apply tax law as a tax specialist?

Often you will deal with routine transactions. In working out the tax consequences for routine transactions, you need to identify the question(s) at issue and the relevant taxpayer and use taxation methodology and legal reasoning to form a view. The taxation methodology and legal reasoning will be provided by your university lecturers, the professional bodies and tax book publishers. Applying tax law to routine transactions will become second nature in the workplace.

In working out the tax consequences for complex transactions, you also need to use the taxation methodologies and the legal reasoning model. However, even when you become more experienced, this is tricky, given the research required for this task, this involves numerous steps. These steps include:

Step 1

Identify the question(s) at issue and the relevant taxpayer.

Step 2

Dr Paul Kenny

Use the taxation methodology to identify and cite the relevant legislation, cases and form an initial view. Note, beware of tunnel vision in this step. Being a grey area there are two sides to the argument. In dealing with the uncertainty you should arm yourself with alternative strategies. For example: What are the alternative views? What alternative provisions can I apply to the facts?

For example, the question may concern the revenue-capital dichotomy in ordinary income: ITAA 1997 s 6-5. Consider both sides of the argument under s 6-5 and then make a conclusion. If you are arguing a receipt is not ordinary income because it is a capital amount, you must also consider whether CGT and other statutory income provisions apply. Also, do the international tax, entity, special taxpayer or anti-avoidance rules apply?  What are the interactions with other taxes (ie GST)?

Another classic area of uncertainty in tax law is the revenue-capital dichotomy in general deductions: s 8-1. Consider both sides of the argument under s 8-1 and then make a conclusion. If you are arguing an expense is not deductible because it is a capital amount, you must also consider whether other specific deductions or Div 40 (depreciation) and Div 43 (capital works) apply. In particular, s 40-880 provides a deduction for many black hole expenses of business. Does the expense fall into a CGT cost base? Also, do the international tax, entity, special taxpayer or anti-avoidance rules apply? What are the interactions with other taxes (ie GST)?

Step 3

Research the detailed commentary/analysis and case law by searching or browsing the detailed online taxation commentaries provided by Thomson Reuter ATP, CCH and the Taxation Institute. Cite any relevant views of these commentaries in your argument to substantiate your view. Read the relevant cases as these are very important to your argument. Cite the relevant case law in your argument to substantiate your view.

Step 4

Research the ATO’s database of taxation rulings as well as case law by searching or browsing the Australian Taxation Office website at <www.ato.gov.au> and clicking on Legal Databases. The ATO view is generally provided by its taxation rulings (TR series), taxation determinations (TD) and class rulings (CR series). The ATO also publishes ATO Interpretative Decisions (ATOIDs) that show their interpretation of grey area issues. Further, edited versions of their private rulings (known as Case Decision Summaries) also can be found here. Cite any relevant ATO views in your argument to substantiate your view. The ATO also publishes numerous fact sheets and explanatory guides such as the income tax return Tax Pack and employee expense deduction guides.

Step 5

To aid your understanding of how the legislation applies to the question at issue go through the statutory interpretation steps and research the explanatory memorandum (EM) accompanying the relevant Act.

Step 6

For more detailed commentary/analysis and case law there are numerous refereed taxation and legal journals and books on taxation law.

Step 7

Use the following taxation internet sites to help your research:

1. Australian Taxation Office
2. The Tax Institute
3. LexisNexis Butterworths
4. Chris Wallis’s Tax Matrix
5. Flinders Business School’s Oz Tax, Australian Taxation Index.

Contributed by Dr Paul Kenny - Associate Professor in Taxation Law - Flinders University.

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

Find out about Student Membership.