According to the latest census, there are now more accountants in Australia than there are farmers.
As much as I like accountants, it seems strange that in a country of 26.6 million people, there are more people tracking the ins and outs of the tax system than producing food and fibre.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 160,000 people were working as accountants in 2021 – a figure that goes to a long-running issue that’s been ignored in the latest debate around tax reform.
Imagine if you could just receive a tax return without having to go through a shoebox full of receipts.Credit: Istock
As it stands, Australians are among the highest users of accountants for personal tax in the world. Most recently, almost two-thirds of us used a tax agent, whereas in New Zealand, the rate is less than a quarter. The only nation with a higher rate of accountant usage is Italy, where citizens face one of the world’s most complex personal tax systems.
The big difference between us and other countries, and the reason so many of us use accountants, is we still don’t have the option of a standard deduction or the closely connected concept of an automatic tax return.
Imagine a world in which, instead of collecting and photographing receipts of all your purchases, the Australian Tax Office assumed you made $1500 in work-related expenses across a financial year and, in the second week of July, emailed you (securely, via the MyGov system) a pre-filled tax return that included the standard deduction.
If you liked the look of the return, you could simply tick a box saying “yes” and a fortnight later, your refund would be deposited into your bank account. That would be your interaction with the ATO for the year.
Importantly, a standard deduction wouldn’t mean ending people’s right to do their own tax. For those who want to spend the time (and money) on an accountant making claims for dinners with workmates or a family trip in the “tradie” ute, go for it.
But if your only claim extends to $500 worth of uniform laundry, saying yes to a $1500 standard deduction should be a lay down misere.
The tax office could send you cash each year. Instead, we’ve got more accountants than farmers
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26.02.2024
According to the latest census, there are now more accountants in Australia than there are farmers.
As much as I like accountants, it seems strange that in a country of 26.6 million people, there are more people tracking the ins and outs of the tax system than producing food and fibre.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 160,000 people were working as accountants in 2021 – a figure that goes to a long-running issue that’s been ignored in the latest debate around tax reform.
Imagine if you could........
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