Financial advisers focused on complying with deadlines to meet their education requirements should not overlook additional study required to ensure their registration as a qualified tax relevant provider (QTRP), the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) has warned.
FAAA general manager policy, advocacy and standards Phil Anderson pointed out while existing advisers have until 1 January 2026 to comply with the experience adviser pathway or meet the relevant education standards, that date was also the deadline to meet criteria to act as a QTRP.
Speaking at the FAAA Roadshow 2025 in Sydney today, Anderson said while advisers may meet the education or experienced adviser pathway by the end of this year they still had to separately meet the criteria to become or to be continue to be a QTRP.
“There was piece of legislation in 2021 – The Better Advice Bill, which was part of legislation that transferred responsibility for oversight from the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and set up this concept of QTRPs,” Anderson told FAAA Roadshow delegates.
“As part of that, if you were on the Financial Adviser Register (FAR) and registered with the TPB at 31 December 2021, or are in the process of applying to be registered the TPB, you were automatically permanently classified as a QTRP.
“If you were on the FAR but were not registered with the TPB, you had a four year transition period under which you were temporarily recognised as a QTRP, and some licensees chose not to register all of their advisers on the TPB.
“You really need to understand whether you meet that criteria or not, because if you don’t you will need to do an Australian taxation law and a commercial law subject.
“They are Australian Qualification Framework level five subjects but without them you will not continue to be able to provide tax advice beyond the end of this year.
“We all know that almost every piece of advice has some tax element, so I really encourage you to understand that,” he suggested.
