TPB reminds financial planners and advisers - time is running out for transitional registration

CHAIR of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB), Ian Taylor, reminds financial planners and advisers who have not yet registered with the TPB that time is running out to take advantage of the transitional registration option which ends on June 30.

Financial planners and advisers who are providing tax (financial) advice as part of their advice to clients for a fee or reward, must be registered with the TPB as a tax (financial) adviser in order to provide this service legally. This applies to:

• Australian financial services (AFS) licensees 
• authorised representatives (ARs) 
• individual ARs
• corporate authorised representatives (CAR) - where an AR operates through a CAR structure, both will need to be registered
• employee representatives who may be required to be registered for the purpose of a company or partnership having a sufficient number of registered individuals - being registered tax (financial) advisers or tax agents. 

"You currently have two options available to register as a tax (financial) adviser," Mr Taylor said. "These options are transitional registration (only available until 30 June) and standard registration.
 
"You may decide that transitional registration is the best option: transitional registration gives you extra time to satisfy the registration requirements under the standard registration option. This includes individuals meeting qualifications and experience requirements, and companies and partnerships meeting the sufficient number requirement," Mr Taylor said.
 
"To register under the transitional option you must have sufficient experience to be able to provide tax (financial) advice services to a competent standard – which is generally the equivalent of 18 months or longer of full time experience," he said.
 
"If you wish to take advantage of the transitional registration option, it is only available until June 30 this year. After this time all registrations and renewals will need to meet the standard registration requirements."
 
Further detail about the registration options is available on the TPB website www.tpb.gov.au