Tax financial advisers who have not yet registered with the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) have been advised to so before the end of the year in order to be automatically added to a register of relevant providers and avoid an additional level of study.
BT Academy head of financial literacy and advocacy Bryan Ashenden said the register “was essentially the [Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)] Financial Adviser Register by a different name and financial advisers under the law are now called a ‘relevant provider’”.
Ashenden said this new register will form part of a single registration regime that removes the need for financial advisers, where they are also a tax financial adviser, to be registered with ASIC and the TPB, but their current status with the latter will have an impact.
“If you are registered with the Tax Practitioners Board immediately before 1 January 2022, before these changes come into effect, then you’re exempt. Essentially, you’ve met the TPB requirements and that carries on into the future so you don’t have to do an additional level of study,” he said during a recent webinar.
He added financial advisers who had met the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority standards to be a qualified tax financial adviser, but had not registered with the TPB, should do so before the end of the year to have that education recognised and be able to have a single registration.
“If you have applied for registration with the Tax Practitioners Board by the end of this year, but it hasn’t yet been approved, then from the date of your registration you are registered and essentially that would mean you potentially don’t need to go and do additional education,” he said.
“The example of that might be for people who are members of certain professional associations and have at least a certain number of years’ experience, they are exempt from the formal education requirements.
“So if you’re not registered, but you meet those other requirements, you might want to get your registration in with the TPB by the end of this year.”
He noted that if an adviser could not be registered with the TPB before the end of the year, they would not be restricted from providing advice, but would have to demonstrate they had completed the education required to be considered a tax financial adviser.
“If you can’t meet the requirements for current registration with the TPB, that is, if you’re not a voting member of those professional associations, or you don’t have the relevant experience that you’ve needed to have had over the last eight or so years, you can still continue to advise.,” he said.
“You have a temporary exemption from 1 January 2022 to the end of 2025, which is where the existing transitional education requirements come to an end.
“So you will continue to be able to provide advice during that period of time, but to be able to provide tax financial advice, then you will need to meet those extra education requirements and do those by the 31 December 2025.”
