An Overview of the Australian Tax Profession

The accounting and tax market in Australia is massive with over 17 billion of revenue for the year ended 30th June 2015. The industry has over 37,000 registered tax agents, 17,000 registered BAS agents and employs over 136.000 people.

They provide a wide range of services including salary and wage tax preparation, BAS services, tax advice, and business tax services.

As at June 2015 registered tax agents lodged 74% of individual tax returns and 95% of business tax returns.

76% of tax agents and 78% of BAS agents are sole practitioners (some operating alone and some with staff).

More than 80% of tax agents are male while 80% of BAS agents are female. The accountants employed at accounting practices are evenly split between the genders with 50% male and 50% female.

The tax profession is heavily reliant on senior workers as more than 55% of tax agents are over 55 years old. In contrast, only 3% of tax agents are under 30 years old. Many tax agents continue working with a reduced client base/workload until their mid-seventies.

Only 50% of all tax agents are members of professional accounting bodies.