How to choose a Tax Agent

Should I use a tax agent?

Do want to do your taxes quickly, easily, and get a good refund – without the stress? 

You can get all that from a tax agent. People use a tax agent for convenience, better tax refunds and friendly support. Above all, people want to know their tax return has been done right and avoid any future ATO trouble. The majority of Australians us a tax agent every year.

Let’s cover some important consumer information about tax agents, the ATO and your tax return:

ATO audits: The ATO is checking up on you right now, and a tax agent can help

ATO computers now track every Australian’s employment and financial details – all year round.

The ATO’s systems check your salary, allowances and expenses. They know what you do, where you live and how old you are. They look at your family, superannuation, Centrelink, childcare and more.

In addition, the ATO can check your bank accounts, credit cards, spending and investments – including overseas. With their latest data-matching technology, they are also carefully checking all investment property tax deductions.

After that, the ATO creates a ‘profile’ predicting what’s on your next tax return. But you can’t ask for a copy of your profile from the ATO.

If you put something on your tax return that’s different to the ATO’s prediction for you, that’s when the ATO start to look at you much, much closer.

As a result, a huge number of Australians receive very upsetting ATO letters and many are forced to pay back part, or all, of their tax refunds.

People who “self-prepare” their taxes on MyGov seem likely to be at higher risk of ATO audits, and claiming fewer deductions. Therefore, they may get smaller tax refunds.

Our accountants find ways to boost your refund by helping you find tax deductions that you might never have thought about. In addition, Etax checks for problems that put the focus of the ATO on you.

So, when you choose Etax you know you’re getting the best refund possible, along with the peace of mind you’d expect from Australia’s top-rated tax agent.

What Is A Registered Tax Agent?

A tax agent has more training and qualifications than a normal accountant. They have to register with the government, pass exams, and complete annual training updates.

Only tax agents are allowed by the ATO to help taxpayers lodge their tax returns, and they have special access to ATO systems.

Every registered tax agent should display a Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) logo like the one shown here, including an official Tax Agent Registration Number.

Tax Agents Are Not All The Same

With the best tax agent, you get help from degree-qualified, tax-trained accountants and tax agents. In other words, your taxes get done by someone whose career is all about tax. They are truly tax experts.

Unfortunately, however, with some accountants, you get served by a person who isn’t a tax agent; and sometimes not even a trained accountant. It’s best to avoid that.

With Etax, you get help from experts; people with an accounting degree, in addition to specialised tax training.

CA and CPA-certified accountants lead the team at Etax, including some of the most experienced tax agents in Australia.

At Etax, every tax return is checked twice. That includes at least one review by a person who is a registered tax agent. This extra level of care is not offered by most other tax agents.

Etax offers additional benefits that aren’t provided by other agents, including year-round support, an excellent online system, and saving receipts from mobile direct to your return.

Good tax agents figure out how to get the tax refund you deserve, without setting off the ATO.

Tax agents are number-crunching machines, doing what they like to do. They find mistakes or numbers that are out of place, then fix them up. Plus, tax agents keep you up to date on ATO publications and tax law training materials.

Tax agents do all this to make tax easy for you. They do your taxes the right way, without a lot of fuss.

The Advantages of Using a Tax Agent

When choosing a tax agent, most Australians will consider the following:

• confidence your taxes get done right,
• help boost your tax refund,
• spend less time each year worrying about taxes,
• expert help when the ATO sends a letter or comes knocking.

On top of all that, many agents charge a low fee AND it’s tax-deductible (so you can claim it next tax time).

At Etax you can get all of these benefits, plus some great technology that makes your tax return more fun. And it only takes minutes of your time.

How to choose a tax agent

You should start by deciding whether you want to your tax return online. If you do, Etax gives you the same support and service you’d get a traditional tax agent office, but without the need for any appointments!

Another consideration is, where is your tax agent really working? Many of the biggest accounting and tax businesses keep offices in Australia, but they really send the work (and your private details) to separate companies located overseas, where lower-paid accountants do the actual work.

Etax is 100% Australian. All of our staff work inside Australia. Etax supports the Australian economy and we think that’s what Etax clients deserve and expect.

When selecting an agent, a good first step is to look at their reviews on Google or Product Review. You should steer clear of an agent with a lot of bad reviews, or with hardly any reviews to judge by. And, if an agent has NO bad reviews, you should question whether their reviews are real.

Etax Customer Ratings

Is your tax agent qualified?

The best agents will show you their qualifications and experience. If you don’t see these important business details on a website or shopfront, you should ask to see them. Here are some other questions you should ask:

• Have they been around for a while, or did they just appear? (Remember, you need to trust your tax agent to handle money and deal with the ATO for you).
• Have they displayed a proper Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) logo and TPB registration number on their website?
• Do they have high ratings with lots of reviews on Google and ProductReview?
• Do they have other qualifications like being a CPA Accounting Practice?
• Are they certified with any quality standard like ISO 9001, or IT security certification like ISO 27001?
• Does their contact page include a REAL business address (not a residential address) and a business phone and email?

Etax answers “yes” to ALL of the above questions.

In fact, Etax is Australia’s most popular tax agent, and we’re completely online.

Etax won Australia’s Canstar Blue Most Satisfied Customers Award for Tax Agents in 2018 and 2020 and the ProductReview award from 2020 to 2025!

Instant tax refunds

Some tax agents offer “same day” or “instant” tax refunds. Should you go for it?

Probably not!

An “instant tax refund” ALWAYS means higher fees. And for what? You tax refund will take, on average, about 7-12 days. Would you pay an extra fifty, hundred or even more just to get your refund a few days quicker?

An “instant” tax refund is just a high-cost, short-term loan – a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Therefore, it’s best to avoid these options.

This is in spite of ATO marketing and media suggesting we should do it ourselves with myTax.

So, why doesn’t everyone go it alone with myTax? Because most people choose to get tax help from someone who’s on their side.