Life after university: what to expect from your new career

If you've undertaken work experience or a graduate program in a professional firm, you’ll know there’s a big difference between life on campus and what’s required when you start work in the real world. Here’s how to make the transition from student to a full-time tax professional as easy and pain-free as possible.

What to expect

Your first job is an essential step in shaping your career journey. Each new experience offers an opportunity to learn, build practical skills, establish rapport with your team members and expand your knowledge of taxation. So try to pick up as much as you can by asking questions and seeking assistance as you need it. Your new colleagues will be much happier to help you learn the right way from the outset than fix problems later.

Your role

In a graduate or entry-level role, you’ll most likely be given a variety of tasks to perform. Depending on the organisation, this could range from carrying out research to practical tasks like preparing tax returns and business statements. In addition, there could be formal training, workplace mentoring or coaching by senior staff, as well as opportunities to attend client meetings and industry events. Use these experiences as an opportunity to gain a firm grounding in best practice for preparing work, building communication skills and understanding business etiquette and due diligence.

How to behave

In the early stages of a new job you’re continuing to prove your worth to the company. Make sure you prepare your work carefully, adhere to processes and ask questions if you’re not sure. Remember that the early stages of your career are about learning to work as part of a team, so be flexible and see your colleagues and your manager as people to assist in achieving a common goal. Even if the work doesn't initially meet your expectations, your efforts will be rewarded and you’ll quickly learn about the company’s clients and business, which will hopefully lead to opportunities for progression. Don't forget that networking is an important part of a career. Read more about the do's and don'ts of networking as a graduate. 

Client management – learn from others

When you have the chance to attend meetings, use these experiences to learn from your colleagues. Observe how they explain issues to clients, manage expectations, set clients at ease and solve problems.

Keep studying and stay up to date

A solid technical base and knowledge of tax law will help you progress your career and distinguish you from others in your field. Formal training programs offered by The Tax Institute and other professional bodies, combined with on-the-job training are invaluable to young professionals. It’s also important to keep up with developments in the sector – tax is a specialised area and one that’s often subject to changes in law and practice, so continuous reading is required to stay up to date.

Making a successful transition from university life to the workplace is all about being prepared, taking the time to understand the experiences of others in the industry, getting to know more about the organisation and treating each opportunity and task as one to learn from.

Looking for that competitive edge? Look into completing The Tax Institute’s Programs, Single Subjects or Short-Courses.

Find out more.

What every tax professional should embrace this FY

With the financial year coming to a close, technology will play to the strengths of younger practitioners’. Throughout the year technological issues have emerged in tax, staying up-to-date on these issues will make you stand out in the crowd. Here are four key things to look for come 1 July to ensure you are ahead of the pack.

1. Scam season
A new financial year brings with it new scams. Clients can be severely impacted, and tax professionals themselves are not immune either. Australian Taxation Office (ATO) statistics show a 68% increase in reported scams in May 2016 with a total of 15,006 scams reported in that month alone. These scams are only likely to increase as the new financial year kicks off and individual taxpayers start lodging their tax returns from 1 July.
Given the high profile of cyber security, it’s time to get your superiors on board with formulating some standards around what staff should do to minimise the risk of your firm and clients being impacted.

2. Data leaks 
In April this year, millions of documents were leaked from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca garnering a lot of interest from media, revenue authorities and the general public. The information released illustrates the extensive use of offshore entities in tax havens to shelter income and assets. Besides the important lesson in ethical tax practices in this story, there is the less-publicised IT story. News broke recently that an IT technician in the Geneva branch of the firm has been detained and is facing criminal investigation in relation to the leak. Without proper controls, IT issues can quickly become a reputational risk for your firm.

3. Early client contact
This year the ATO will have improved data-matching technology and will be armed with more sophisticated benchmarks of what constitutes a range of “normal” tax profiles and whether your clients are within that range. For the first time ever, the ATO will be checking taxpayers’ deductions in real-time as they complete their online returns. With the ATO investigating client data earlier in the piece, so should you.

This addresses a longstanding frustration of tax professionals who can sometimes be the last to know about their own clients' tax affairs through no fault of their own. It’s worth investigating whether your firm can get involved.

4. Practice software
At our National Convention in March, the Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan AO, announced that a Practitioner Lodgment Service (PLS) will be available from 1 July. This is a new gateway for practitioners to lodge returns with the ATO and from March 2017 it will be the only gateway to do so. If your firm’s software isn’t ready in time, you will be stuck running to the ATO with stacks of paper returns to lodge.

The ATO is expecting a gradual build up in returns lodged through PLS between now and March 2017.Time will tell whether software developers will get on board with this strategy rather than leaving it to the last minute to have their software packages SBR-enabled.

As a member of The Tax Institute, you will be provided with the support and knowledge to stay abreast of any changes this financial year and election.

 For more information on membership with The Tax Institute visit taxinstitute.com.au/membership or call an advisor on +61 2 8223 0089.

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.

6 tips to a killer letter of advice

The tax profession can provide you with a rewarding and satisfying career. However, with the rise in technology and software advancements, it has become much more than just crunching the numbers or dictating the legislation. To become successful and desirable, you must differentiate yourself in the profession and do what a computer cannot. Within this blog, we provide 6 helpful tips to help you craft your letter of advice to satisfy not only your client and employer but your job satisfaction.

1. Who is the reader?
Put yourself in your client’s shoes and ask yourself, “What do they need to know?” Your task is to write a letter of advice: to a client and for a client. Understanding who you are writing for is the difference between a letter of advice and a good letter of advice.

2. Tone of voice: formal vs informal
A letter of advice is not the same as an email or internal memo. It’s more formal than that and represents your advice to your client, as well as the brand of your company or firm. Though to clarify, formal doesn’t mean stuffy! It’s still all about effectively communicating in a digestible way for your client. When in doubt, err on the formal side – it is a business document after all!

3. Check your grammar, spelling and punctuation
Typos, incorrect syntax and long-winded sentences never helped anyone. It means your letter lacks a discernible point. When in doubt, insert that full stop and start a new sentence.

4. Paragraphs and sentences: keep it short and sweet
Write short, concise paragraphs and short concise sentences. Don’t confuse your client.

5. Use headings, subheadings and bullet points
Don’t be afraid to use headings, subheadings and bullet points against these paragraphs. A letter of advice is not an essay and it’s perfectly acceptable to break up your text with intuitive headings. Creating white space on a page or screen is easier on the eye and gets your point across to your client quicker.

6. Choose your words. They matter!
The power of words cannot be underestimated here. For example, what would your client do if you wrote: you ‘are’ running a business vs you ‘may’ be running a business. Is there a potential risk issue for you to write in definitive language? Consider words like ‘should’, ‘may’, ‘probable’ and ‘reasonably arguable’ instead.

The main thing to remember is that you are writing a document for your client to enable them to make sound business decisions. Ensure that your client can easily digest the information you are providing to ensure they do not miss or misinterpret any valuable information.

For further information, view the free How to Reason, Research and Write webinar, produced by The Tax Institute.