Sydney Accountants & Tax Agent
There are many factors that need to be considered when identifying a trustworthy accountant in Sydney, as there are so many Sydney accountants out there who are trying to win your trust. However, the sad reality is that once you engage in any of bad accountants, once they charge you money and obtain the money, you will simply look for them and they will just disappear. Hence, below are some factors to consider when you are looking for an accountant in Sydney.
Registered tax consultant
You need to check the detail of the accountants if they are registered tax with the Australian Tax Office (ATO). You can do this by asking them directly if they are officially registered with the Australian Tax Office (ATO). Don’t just take their word for it. You must take their registration number and call the ATO on 13 28 61 and verify their details. Ensure their detail matches.
Offer Great Return
In general, whenever you meet an accountant who offers you a 100% return then you need to be very suspicious because this accountant will surely perform fraud in order to achieve a 100% refund. In general, those accountants will charge 10% per refund, i.e. they will advise you that they can refund you $40,000 but will charge you $4000. So many people will not resist such a deal. Because the honest accountants may be able to refund you only $8000 and charge you only $300 per tax return. Hence, people will go for a $36,000 refund rather than $7700.
The issue with the type of transaction is very expensive and when the ATO perform the audit they will penalize you and force you to redo your tax return legally. In this case, you perform an amended tax return. Don’t bother to contact your original accountant because you won’t find him/her as they have originally instructed you that they will do it on your behalf and they will not take the responsibilities. In this case, you will be forced to seek an honest accountant to redo your tax return.
Using Your Credential
A good accountant will use his or her own credentials when they are representing you. This is usually done by representing you using their taxation agency registration details. Hence, you will be kind of, sponsored by this agency when your tax return is lodged. This way you can trust that they will not perform any illegal taxation activities. Because if they perform any illegal activity their license will be in jeopardy and no tax agency will risk that.
However, on many occasions, certain agencies will be using your credential and creating an account on your behalf with the tax office. On this occasion, the agencies can do some sort of illegal activity in order to maximize your income tax return. As discussed in the above point the consequences will be severe.
Skills
A good accountant will be very skillful and can offer a variety of services. If your accountant is only offering an individual tax return, then you know that he or she is a high risk. In another word, they are not a trustworthy accountant.
However, if the accountant is offering many services such as a company tax return, business tax return, family trust, setting up a new company, or corporate tax advice. On this occasion, you will know that this accountant is good, and will risk losing their license for extra dollars.
Behaviors
When you visit your accountant ensure that their conversation is genuine. You can do this by checking if what they say is correct or not. Once my sister went to a lawyer who lost a famous case and it was all over the news. The lawyers advised my sister that they have won the case. A total misleading representation. In this case, you should leave immediately because this is a red flag. Hence, when your accountant informs you that you can claim everything, including all clothing, all your meals. You know that this is a dishonest accountant.
I know many of our clients come to us when they are in serious problems with the tax department. For instance, the pandemic stimulus packages were only offered to businesses that are paying GST, those who didn’t apply to GST could not claim one.
In conclusion, I recommend you to find an honest accountant with consideration of all the above points in order to stay away from trouble with ATO.
To find out more look at another related article to this article below:
Sydney Accountants how to find the best accountant in Sydney
