The Treasury Department is compiling legislation to tighten up an Industry that it seems to know little about. This could have devastating effects on small business in Australia.
There’s a fundamental issue that seems to have been overlooked – the definition of a bookkeeper. Since the ATO doesn’t know what a bookkeeper does, and many tax agents and accountants don’t really know how to do bookkeeping then how can they advise the Treasury about what bookkeepers do?
Small business owners, may well end up paying a heavy price
With the current draft legislation, it would appear that just about every bookkeeper would need to become a registered BSP as just about every bookkeeper makes decisions regarding the GST tax codes to be used on just about every transaction.
Tax Agents rarely provide detailed instructions regarding the coding of specific transactions, this area is generally regarded as the bookkeepers realm with the exception of unusual or specific cases that may require direction.
Few tax agents are able to actually process and understand the ramifications using the software currently in use by businesses, they often rely on the bookkeeper to code correctly after discussions and advice.
So we could see a total shake up in the industry, and the very people the legislation is looking to protect, the small business owners, may well end up paying a heavy price.
Many very experienced (“unqualified” – according to legislation) bookkeepers may be faced with the decision of leaving their trade rather than entering a minefield of legislation and academic hurdles to justify what they have succesfully been doing for years.
Shonky bookkeepers will still be able to operate in their own ways for unsuspecting employees who neither have the knowledge or inclination to oversee the competancy of their work.
So what will the new legislation have achieved?
Next BAS due
