Prepare tax documentation for individuals Assessment-
Part A - Presentation
Part B - Written Report
Part C - Written Report
Assessment Tasks-
Presentation - Presentation consists of the following assessment methods:
- Demonstration/observation
- Problem solving
- Role play
- Evaluating
Written Report - Written report consists of the following assessment methods:
- Case study
- Problem solving
Part A - Presentation
Instructions: Jeff Jones is a new client to your firm and you are meeting him for the first time to discuss taxation issues and the preparation of the required income tax returns for the current tax year. You will need to provide an audio or video recording of no more than 5 minutes in length. For this assessment, you will require two people, one to be the ‘client' and another to be the ‘senior tax agent'. These two people can be drawn from colleagues, family or friends. You will be interacting with both people in this presentation, so they will be working from ‘Briefing notes'. Each of the participants must ask the questions that have been allocated to them (i.e. Participant 1 or Participant 2).
Ask the participants to take notes and Complete the feedback form (Appendix A) and the consent form (Appendix B).
Before you commence your presentation, review the briefing questions below to ensure you will have the appropriate information to provide in your verbal responses.
Questions to ask include:
• What documents will I need to provide for you to complete my tax return?
• What income is assessable to me? - (consider income elements including salary and wage earnings, and investment earnings)
• What deductions can I claim against my employment earnings? - (note: reference to the ruling on employee plumbers can be used)
• What investment deductions can I claim? (consideration of the rental property and what can be claimed)
• What rebates may I be entitled to? - (can I claim the SAPTO rebate, what thresholds may be applicable for me - consideration of )
• If I sold the property are there any tax consequences? (consideration of capital gains or losses)
• Do I need to register my business for anything tax related? - (consider GST and other registrations such as Workcover)
Briefing notes: Senior tax agent (Participant 2)
You have just observed your new tax agent interacting with a client. Please ask the tax agent the following questions:
1. How well did you think you went providing advice to the client? What could you have done differently?
2. In regards to the information about the possible sale of the client's property, what are the key considerations about CGT? Information to be requested includes - confirmation of the purchase date (or requesting a copy of the settlement statement), discussion on a potential sales price and date of sale (discuss pre 30 June vs post 30 June), any improvements to the property, capital allowance schedules, etc.
Part B - Written report
Read the case study below and answer the following question.
You are working as a tax agent and one of your clients (Julie Palmer) has come to you for assistance. Julie is self employed as a web designer and due to her heavy work load and unpredictable working hours has not yet sorted out her tax matters. Julie spends a lot of time sorting out her business expense for tax however she has lost a few receipts and tax invoices in the last quarter of the financial year. She is unable to provide exact dollar amounts for expenses as listed in the table below. You as a tax agent have already lodged the tax return based on the details provided in Table 1.
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Education expenses
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$2000
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Software subscription
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$1000
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Internet expenses
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$500
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Telephone expenses
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$300
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Task: You are required to:
1. Reconcile the bank statement against the claims made by highlighting the items.
2. Identify any discrepancies, using the following table:
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Expense
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Estimate
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Actual
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Education expenses
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Software subscription
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Internet expenses
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Telephone expenses
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3. Identify and explain the steps you would take to address the discrepancies including your communication with your client and the regulators.
Part C - Written report
You have been employed by an accounting firm for just over twelve months. On reviewing the firm's policies and procedures, you have identified some weaknesses and have been asked to prepare a report for senior management on the following key organisational issues:
1. Training of new tax agents has been raised as an issue by stakeholders. You have decided that in order to assist with this issue you will create a client details checklist, tax preparation checklist and a sample of an individual tax return and relevant schedules And a procedure for applying personal services income rules and how they affect taxable income (Appendixes A, B, C F)
2. Advice on responding to clients with upcoming audits. In your report outline the steps you would take after a client calls to discuss an audit letter they have received. Identify some preliminary actions staff should take (Appendix D).
3. Outline the requirements of Part IVA and the penalties imposed on clients. Provide a recommendation on how to respond to clients who have seen recent advertising by a competitor which claims that they can offer clients a way to "pay no tax anymore".
4. Recently one of the tax agents in your firm had a new client referred to them and they discovered that they are a part owner in the building that the client was renting for her business. Referring to the Tax Practitioners Board website (www.tpb.gov.au) - consider the Code of professional conduct and how it may impact the tax agent in practice. Outline the ethical issues that the tax agent would need to take into consideration in this case and possible ways to manage the issues (Note: consider the three key concepts in your response). Outline the importance of a code of conduct for the organisation and how this could assist employees in managing these types of ethical issues (Appendix E)
5. Research two recent changes to legislative requirements and outline how these are applied to the preparation of clients' tax documentation. Your response could consider issues such as the change in Medicare Levy or rebate thresholds (Appendix see F)
As appendixes to the report you need to provide the following documents:
A. A client details checklist, including fields for the collection of appropriate information to assist with client management such as; family details, services required, entity and individual returns required and key taxation issues such as lodgement due dates and office turnaround times (for example communicating firm/client expectations such as expected job turnaround times and client communications). (Note you can use Jeff Jones and his family as an example.)
B. A tax return preparation checklist including key information requirements, such as assessable income types and allowable deductions and rebates that may be applicable. Ensure you include instructions on using digital systems and programs for planning, implementing, monitoring, reporting progress and lodgement of returns.
C. A worked example of the required tax forms along with the information provided by your client. Information for the worked example is included below the heading - ‘Information for worked example'.
D. A checklist indicating how to respond appropriately to client queries and how you will communicate with the client about their obligations. (Note: Visit the ATO website and the Tax Practitioners Board website to assist you with your response.)
E. A template for a general letter to clients explaining what can be done if an audit letter is received.
F. A draft code of conduct for the organisation.
G. A procedure for applying personal services income rules and how they affect taxable income.
1000 words
6 references
Attachment:- Asignement.rar