This would include courses or webinars in relation to managing stress, self-care and supporting the mental health and wellbeing of your staff. 

No, we do not approve any CPE activities (other than our own) and therefore this situation should not occur. If you become aware of this, we would appreciate you sending an email to us via our Contact Us form.

You cannot double count any units that you used to become registered as a BAS agent. Any other additional courses could count so long as they are relevant to the provision of BAS services you provide.

You should exercise your professional judgement in selecting CPE activities relevant and appropriate to your circumstances. The CPE activities you undertake must be relevant to the tax agent or BAS services you provide and should be provided by people or organisations with suitable qualifications and/or practical experience in the relevant subject area.

Payroll courses would be considered relevant as long as they develop your relevant personal knowledge and skills and are provided by appropriate providers. 

With regard to software program updates and tax and accounting software courses - these do count as CPE on the basis that effective and accurate use of a software program impacts on the skills you need to competently provide tax agent or BAS services to clients.

No, you can’t double count an activity. The course would need to include new content and be relevant to the tax agent or BAS services you provide.

No, we are allowing registered tax practitioners to undertake educative activities for health and wellbeing topics, as long as they make up no more than 10% of CPE over your CPE period. For example, you may attend an educative seminar on the topic of managing staff health and wellbeing. These activities should be educational and be relevant to the tax agent or BAS services you provide.

Structured CPE has a clear set of objectives, where the participant will seek or receive a specific learning objective and the CPE activity will provide a structured means to achieve that learning objective.

Unstructured CPE on the other hand has no set knowledge/learning objective or structure, such as professional or technical reading.

Yes, our webinars are considered to be a structured activity, noting that there are clear learning outcomes and it is delivered by suitably qualified people.

Yes, it doesn't matter if you watch it live or as a recording afterwards, it is still considered structured. However, you can’t count it twice towards your CPE.

You should make a record of your CPE activities, including sufficient details about the CPE activities and the hours completed. The kind of evidence you are required to keep will depend on if the CPE activities were structured or unstructured.

The record should include details of the activities and the hours completed. We have developed a CPE log that you may like to use to assist with your record keeping requirements. 

We expect that no more than 25% of your CPE over the period should be completed through unstructured learning. However, in light of COVID-19 impacts, we have temporarily removed this 25% cap until 31 December 2022.

Unstructured CPE activities can include:

• professional or technical reading
• self-paced audio, visual and computer aided instruction
• group discussions on technical topics.

Examples of structured CPE activities include:

• formal training courses
• tertiary courses (including distance learning)
• conferences (including those completed by telephone or video conference)
• educational webinars 
• relevant CPE activities provided by a recognised tax or BAS agent association. 

We do not mandate CPE topics. You may claim CPE activities if they are relevant to the tax agent or BAS services you provide.

You just need to record the hours completed, but we may request that you provide evidence to support your records.

The logbook you keep for your recognised professional association will meet our requirements.

We ask that you declare that you continue to comply with your CPE requirements when you renew your registration and when you complete your annual declaration. We may, at any stage, ask that you provide a copy of your CPE log and if so, your recognised professional association log can be provided for this purpose.

When watching a recorded video that does not have a registration process, we would suggest providing a screenshot of the video. It’s also important to provide detail in your logbook that identifies the relevance between the activity and the tax agent or BAS services that you provide, so make sure you include a brief description.

You should record your CPE as the individual agent. Companies and partnerships are not required to complete CPE.

Your CPE period will generally be a 3-year period beginning on the date you registered and ending on the date your registration expires. For example, if you first registered on 1 August 2022, your CPE period will be from 1 August 2022 to 31 July 2025.

However, if you are a member of a recognised professional association, you will be able to align your CPE period with the CPE period of your professional association. This means that you can elect to have your CPE period based on a financial year, a calendar year or the anniversary of your association membership start date. 

There is no requirement to advise us of your CPE period. If you elect to align your CPE period with that of your recognised professional association, we recommend you keep a record along with the records you maintain for your CPE activities. Importantly, you can’t change your CPE period once you make an election unless your professional association membership details change.

If your renewal falls on 30 September 2022, the new requirements won't commence for you until that date. Alternatively, the 90-hours will commence the next calendar or financial year or the anniversary of your recognised professional association membership start date, if you are a member and you elect a CPE period to align with your professional association. 

The 120-hours includes 25% of relevant technical or professional reading. We've also introduced a 10% health and wellbeing allowance. 

You will need to wait until your next renewal date as the new requirements will not apply to you until your next renewal date. Until then, you will need to continue to comply with the current requirements. 

Yes, you can align your CPE period with your recognised professional association. The CPE period will commence from 1 July or 1 January or the anniversary of your association membership start date, following registration or renewal of registration after 1 July 2022. Until your elected CPE period starts, you should complete CPE on a  pro-rata basis. 

For newly registered tax and BAS agents, the pro-rata calculation will be based on the new CPE requirements. If you are renewing your registration, this will be calculated based on the previous CPE requirements.

There is no change for research and development tax agent advisers. Your required hours remain at 45-hours over a 3-year period.

Unfortunately, you are not able to carry over or bank your CPE hours. To ensure relevant knowledge and skills are maintained, a minimum level of relevant CPE is required to be completed each period.

We’ve allowed flexibility in our revised policy by spreading the CPE hours you need to complete over a 3-year period. Even if you work part-time, you need to maintain your knowledge and skills to be able to provide competent services to your clients. So, you are still required to complete the minimum hours requirement over a 3-year period.

However, if you work part-time due to some extenuating circumstances, you can request some relief from the minimum level of CPE. Even under these circumstances, you must show that you have attempted to use the flexibility of the CPE period to complete the minimum CPE hours required.

As long as the activity is relevant to the tax agent or BAS services you provide, you can claim one hour of CPE for each one hour of time completed.

In these types of circumstances, we will consider appropriate relief from the minimum hours of CPE. You will need to demonstrate that you have attempted to use the flexibility of your CPE period to manage any extenuating circumstances to comply with our CPE requirements. It’s important to exercise your professional judgment in this regard and keep appropriate contemporaneous records of such circumstances.