INTHEBLACK September 2021 - Magazine - Page 33
STORY BELINDA PARKES
T H E A U S T R A L I A N G O V E R N M E N T ’ S N AT I O N A L TA X C L I N I C P R O G R A M I S M E E T I N G
A N U R G E N T N E E D I N T H E C O M M U N I T Y B Y P R O V I D I N G AS S I S TA N C E T O T H O S E
WHO ARE UNABLE TO ENGAGE THE HELP OF A TAX AGENT OR PUBLIC PRACTITIONER.
INVALUABLE
ASSISTANCE
W
hen the Australian Government
announced its free National Tax
Clinic program in 2019, the response
from the finance and accountancy
profession was mixed. Some public practitioners saw
the program as a new competitor in the market, with
the potential to affect their business.
Others felt it foolish to offer free tax advice,
because this would deter people from wanting to
pay for services in the future.
However, what many underestimated was the scale
of community disengagement with the Australian
Taxation Office (ATO) and taxation specialists.
These were not people trying to avoid paying tax.
They had the desire for compliance; what was missing
was their capacity to achieve it.
Annette Morgan FCPA is a tax agent and lecturer
at Western Australia’s Curtin University. Together
with her colleague Donovan Castelyn, after extensive
political lobbying, she established the National Tax
Clinic’s pilot program through the university in 2018.
“What we found out through our pilot was that we
were dealing with lots of clients who had let their taxes
get so out of control they weren’t in a financial position
to engage a professional to help them,” says Morgan.
In the early days of the Curtin Tax Clinic, its work
– and the need for it in the community – was not
fully understood.
It soon became apparent, however, that the project
was meeting a huge need in the community and
helping people who were not in the position to engage
the help of a tax agent or public practitioner.
Some of the tax clinic clients were experiencing
marriage breakdowns, domestic violence and
homelessness. Others had a disability, or were isolated
by geographical, cultural or language barriers.
There was also a striking number of clients who had
not lodged a tax return for many years – sometimes
decades – or had an outstanding BAS and urgently
needed help to get their tax affairs up to date.
“For one, these people are in such a hole they can’t
afford to pay, which adds to their burden and makes
them think, ‘I can’t do this, I’m going to leave it’,”
Morgan says.
“But there are other issues that – in my 30-odd years
working in my own small family tax clinic and in firms
– I’d never seen before.
“I’d never had clients who were getting prosecuted or
couldn’t pay their tax due to hardship – it wasn’t the type
of work we did, because our clients weren’t in that space.”
CLICK HERE
TO READ
a CPA Australia
policy submission
on National Tax
Clinics
intheblack.com September 2021 33