The halfway mark!

I have reached the mid-point in my presidential term at The Tax Institute, and I'm look forward to the hard slog over the six months to come.

A president’s term is only 12 months, but my predecessors have told me it’s like running a marathon. It’s all in the second half and gets harder towards the end. Well, the second half is about to start and the first has been frantic. What’s the message? I must admit that the issues are broad and challenging, but I work with good people and am enjoying my term as president.

Your Institute has been flat out to deliver to you, and represent you in, all matters tax. As you all know, it’s hard out there and every little bit makes a difference. Your team at The Tax Institute continues to innovate and deliver in accordance with our brand promise.

Since last month, a lot has happened. We have a new Prime Minister and a new Treasurer in Chris Bowen. The Treasurer brings with him 18 months’ experience as an Assistant Treasurer, which we hope will stand him in good stead to get on with the job of much needed reforms to our tax system.

We look forward to continuing our open and constructive working relationship with the Treasurer’s office.

We have seen a number of tax Bills passed into law, including an important one that subjects financial advisers to the tax agent services regime. I appeared, together with our tax counsel team, before a Parliamentary Committee inquiry into these measures and it was pleasing to have the Committee agree with our position and recommend that financial advisers be brought into the regime (see the Senior Tax Counsel’s Report in this issue of the journal). We continue to put submissions into various government bodies on a variety of tax issues. The work rate and time frames remain extremely tight.

Thank you to all for making time available to assist in the submissions.

Stephen Westaway

Stephen Westaway is President of the National Council at The Tax Institute.

The Tax Institute is Australia's leading professional association in tax. Its 13,000 members include tax agents, accountants and lawyers as well as tax practitioners in corporations, government and academia.