What’s the process for new advisers who want to provide tax (financial) advice)?
Since 31 December 2021, the TPB has stopped registering financial advisers as tax (financial) advisers.
Any individual advisers who want to be authorised to provide tax (financial) advice must now meet the requirements to be a qualified tax relevant provider (QTRP) and must be registered on the Financial Adviser Register (FAR) as a QTRP.
This means any adviser who completes their professional year from 1 January 2022 onwards must follow the new process.
The issue is the new process is still being developed. So far, we know it will roll out in two stages. We have a little detail on stage one and none on stage two, so we’ll concentrate on stage for now.
In stage one AFSL holders can apply to register advisers on the FAR as QTRPs. Stage one will commence on 1 October 2022 at the latest.
Our advice: Unfortunately, the current guidance from ASIC doesn’t specifically cover the time between now and the start of stage one. Until we have more information from ASIC on this, we recommend that new advisers should not provider tax (financial) advice to clients.
However, if the firm (company or partnership) the adviser works for was previously registered as a tax agent to provide tax (financial) advice with the TPB, then the firm can continue to provide tax (financial) advice for a fee from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022 under transitional arrangements.