The cost of a tax accountant ranges from $75 to $220, with the median, ranging from $90 to $130 across Australia. By hiring a capable and more importantly, reliable, tax accountant, you’ll be able to see a huge difference in retained funds for personal or corporate use.

Tax accountants peak in demand during the End of Financial Year (EOFY) period to ensure you receive the highest amount of tax back – with the essential goal to save money. Tax accountants’ roles are only useful if you hire the right one for the right price, therefore it is important to know the cost of hiring a tax accountant.

The deadline for the Australian Tax Return is Thursday the 31st of October 2020.

With many of us working from home now due to COVID-19, the ATO has introduced a new Shortcut Method to claim on running and home office expenses. The Shortcut Method allows for you to claim 80 cents per work hour, as long as you fulfil your employment duties working at home, calculate your actual working hours and have records of a 4-week period representative of your usual working pattern.

To find out more details on how to claim your expenses due to working from home, see our How to Lodge Your Tax Return if You’re Working From Home guide.

When setting a budget for your tax accounting job, it is important to investigate how the prices vary depending on the service type you require. Even though the average reported costs of the tax accountant service types listed below are quite similar, it can still impact the price quoted.

BAS/GST – $160 – $490 – average reported cost
If you are a registered business, it’s likely that you will need a tax accountant to lodge a business activity statement (BAS) if you’re registered for goods and services tax (GST). The BAS report will assist in reporting and paying GST, PAYG instalments, PAYG withholding tax as well as other taxes.

Business Advisory – $150 – $700 average reported cost
Business advisory services have the ability to provide insightful investment advice and general financial planning services for your business – no matter how big or small. With the average reported cost between $103 – $140 nation-wide, it can be seen as a small investment to potentially make or save a heap of money.

Tax Return – $50 – $1,000 average reported cost
Hiring an accountant for tax returns is the most popular service type on Oneflare. Tax accountants can help you uncover as many tax deductions as possible to ensure you receive the maximum amount of tax back at the end of the financial year.

While the service type is the main factor the tax accountant takes into account when quoting a price, there are other factors that can affect it in other ways. For example, it may turn out to be cheaper per service if you need a tax accountant more often – such as an annual occurrence (such as a tax return). Or, on the other hand, the structure of your business can affect the tax requirements and ultimately will affect the amount of work the accountant has to do, therefore, affecting the cost.

How often you need the tax accountant?
How often you require the tax accountant’s services can impact upon the price you pay in the end. Customers on Oneflare that needed the accountant annually, paid somewhere between $103 to $140 with a median price of $120. Quarterly occurrences paid between $103 to $143 with a median price of $121. If you need the tax accountant for a one-off job, expect to pay somewhere between $104 to $140 with a median price of $120.

Your business structure
The structure of your business can impact the price quoted, as different business structures have different tax requirements. If your business is a company, you can expect to pay somewhere between $103 to $142. The price doesn’t move a whole lot, with sole traders expected to pay between $104 to $141. Lastly, if you’re looking for a tax accounting business for personal use, the prices range from $104 to $140.

Correspondence or face-to-face communication
The most popular option with previous Oneflare customers is to have both correspondence and face-to-face communication for their consultation, followed by purely face-to-face communication and then correspondence. All three variations have similar average reported tax accountant fees, ranging from $103 to $140 and a median price of $120.

Your annual company turnover or personal income amount
When a tax accountant views your job request and before they provide a quote, they will consider how much your annual company turnover or personal income is. If that amount is from $0 – $50,000, the price quoted may be around $118. If the amount ranges between $50,000 – $200,000, then you can expect to pay around $121 for your tax accounting job. An annual turnover or personal income ranging from $200,000 – $2,000,000 can expect to pay around $121 as well.

Complex issues
Depending on the type of work you do or your business provides you may also have a level of financial complexity that would benefit from an accountant which has an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL). Accountants with this license are able to give advice about self-managed super funds as well as investment issues.

Meeting them halfway
Part of minimising the costs involved in hiring an accountant is by making sure you hold up your end of the agreement. Make sure you file and maintain your receipts in a way that easy to audit. That your expenses and income are clearly logged. The better you maintain your records the less time your accountant has to spend and the lower your fees will be.

Consistency
If possible it is worthwhile to check in with your accountant on a monthly basis. This way you can review any financial issues you may be having and take an objective look at where your money is going. A good accountant should be able to offer more than just crunching the numbers but also provide guidance as to how you can better save money or mitigate any financial risks.

Qualifications and insurance
Most accountants are likely to have completed a university degree or diploma, having one of these qualifications can contribute to making your decision on who to hire. Also, check if the accounting business belongs to an accounting association such as Chartered Accounts for Australia and New Zealand, which will further aid their abilities and trustworthiness.

Reviews
By reading these testimonials, you can get a good idea of what it’s like to work with this business, and you can decide if it suits you and your needs – whatever they may be. Look for reviews that match the service type, for example, if you are looking at hiring a tax accountant to complete and lodge a tax return it would be best to check reviews that relate to tax return services. Finding someone who you can work with who understand both your situation and how you operate as a business or individual is extremely important as the person you choose will be helping make important life choices. Rather than seeing them as a once a year necessity the right accountant should be able to provide you or your business with lifelong financial advice and support.

To receive the most accurate quote, be sure to include as much information about the job as possible.

* The cost data is based on Oneflare and third-party sources