IPA Group Executive Group Executive Advocacy & Professional Standards Vicki Stylianou on the right at the IPA’s National Congress last month
Tax code changes
IPA jointly advocated for the Government to amend Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024 (Code Determination). The legislative instrument was registered on 2 July 2024. The original form of the Code Determination that imposes eight additional obligations was poorly designed, not practicably implementable and represented Government overreach. There were show-stoppers, namely:
- The unworkable start date of 1 August 2024.
- Mandatory client notification (client dob-in rules).
- Disclosure rules that were widely considered an overreach.
The government finally came to the table in August 2024 to work with the professional associations through a series of extensive roundtables and discussions and agreed to redesign most of the concerning aspects of the Code Determination. The first priority was to defer the start date to allow practitioners a sensible and workable time frame to comply with the new rules. We now have the application date of 1 January 2025 for larger firms and 1 July 2025 for smaller firms.
Next, the notification provisions (‘client dob-in rules’) were rewritten so they now require practitioners to disclose only certain (and limited) information about their clients to the ATO (or TPB), and only in the most egregious circumstances similar to existing Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards (APES) requirements. Further, the government agreed to narrow the scope of the otherwise unacceptably broad disclosure rules,
IPA Senior Tax Advisor Tony Greco said the organisation’s “mature and constructive” advocacy helped shape more practical implementation timelines for smaller practices. “The TPB has acknowledged that expectations for small and medium practices should be entirely different to those for big four firms,” Greco said.
Payday super

The superannuation system is riddled with inefficiencies, says Greco. We strongly urge the Government to address these issues before it contemplates moving to a payday super model. We are also disappointed in the closure of the ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House. The changes require businesses to ensure super contributions reach employee accounts within seven days or face daily interest charges and are set to take effect from July 2026.
We are also concerned that small businesses will be adversely impacted by this proposal. They will face cashflow consequences and additional administrative costs as the frequency of transactions will increase substantially.”
Government business grants
A landmark research project by the IPA Deakin SME Research Centre revealed widespread inefficiencies in government business grants. The study, which analysed more than $4 billion in federal grants from 2018 to 2022, found that just 17% of grants underwent competitive assessment.
Research Centre Director Professor George Tanewski said the findings highlighted serious concerns about grant allocation. “Current methods of supporting businesses with direct financial assistance might be problematic because it appears it can create incentives for companies to become ‘subsidy businesses’,” he said.
New climate disclosure requirements
Climate reporting will soon be reality for larger businesses due to mandatory disclosure legislation. The new law requires large Australian companies to report on climate risks from January 2025.
IPA Senior Adviser Daen Soukseun said while the move towards standardised reporting was positive, implementation costs could burden smaller entities. “There will be a cost initially to implementing climate disclosures, but the cost of not dealing with climate change may be even greater,” she said.
The IPA took a nuanced stance on climate reporting requirements, advocating for proportionate disclosure frameworks based on business size rather than blanket exemptions for smaller entities.
“If fundamentally we believe that climate reporting is worth doing, which we think it is, then everyone in the size thresholds should be reporting it, but the cost-benefit of the report has to be proportionate to the entity’s complexity,” Soukseun said.
Anti-money laundering regime
November saw the passage of anti-money laundering legislation that will require accountants to combat financial crime from 1 July 2026. AUSTRAC National Manager Brad Brown told the IPA National Congress last month that accountants would serve as frontline defenders against financial crime, which costs Australia an estimated $60 billion annually.
The IPA successfully jointly advocated for modifications to ensure compliance costs wouldn’t outweigh benefits. This included dropping requirements to retrospectively rate the AML/CTF risk of all existing clients and securing a two-year implementation timeline.
Small business tax relief
Small business tax relief remained a priority throughout 2024. The IPA’s pre-budget submission urged reform of Australia’s taxation regime to make it fairer and more efficient for smaller entities.
“What we’re saying is that, when you’re a small business, you face pretty much the same taxation burden as a larger business,” Greco said. “The small business tax offset gives something back to help with the disproportionate burden, but it’s not enough to make up for the significant cost.”
Rising business costs compounded these concerns. “Small businesses are in their own cost of living crisis,” Greco said. “They’re facing rising rents, land taxes and so on, but at the same time they can’t increase prices significantly because consumers cannot afford to pay them – so they’re being smashed at both ends.”
Financial advice
The financial advice sector saw significant change with the passage of legislation enabling an “experience pathway” for advisers with ten years’ experience to practice without formal qualifications. IPA Group Executive Group Executive Advocacy & Professional Standards Vicki Stylianou said the IPA had advocated for alternative pathways that wouldn’t compromise advice quality whilst addressing adviser shortages. “The IPA believes certain parameters must be included to ensure the greater professionalisation of the sector,” she said.
The IPA continued to advocate for the recognition of accountants with additional SMSF qualifications to be able to provide advice on establishing SMSFs as part of their regular tax agent services to existing clients.
Reforms in 2025
Next year, several key reforms will take effect, including climate reporting requirements for large companies and the first phase of payday super changes. The IPA has secured extended implementation periods for smaller practices across multiple reforms.
“We’ve really seen progress in getting regulators and government to acknowledge the different capabilities and resources of smaller practices,” Greco said. “While we support the objectives of these reforms, implementation has to be practical and proportionate.”
We also expect to see the Government response to the Parliamentary Joint Committee report into Ethics and Professional Accountability: Structural Challenges in the Audit, Assurance and Consultancy Industry. This, and other Parliamentary inquiries, are in response to the PwC scandal and will continue to play out for some time to come.
More information on IPA’s advocacy here.