Frequently Asked Questions
Our Services
Are you a registered Tax Agent?
Yes, in order to provide Australian tax advice and/or tax preparation services, a person/company MUST be a registered Tax Agent. Our company, Expat Tax Services and our principal, Shane Macfarlane are both registered tax agents, as are a number of our team in their own right!
Our Tax Agent Number is 25220543. You can view our registration on the Tax Practitioner’s Board website located here.
Do you prepare Australian tax returns?
Yes we do. In fact preparing Australian tax returns is what we do most!
For almost 15 years we’ve specialised in the preparation of Australian tax returns for Aussie expats living and working in every corner of the globe across almost 100 countries (96 countries at last count in June 2021), and for foreign expats living and working in Australia.
Preparing tax returns on behalf of our expat clients represents approximately 70% the work that we do in any given year. The rest of our work largely comprises of the provision of tax advisory and other services to our clients.
If you need any assistance in preparing and lodging your Australian tax returns, reach out to our team as we’d be more than happy to assist.
What other services do you provide?
Besides preparing Australian tax returns for for Australian expats living and working in every corner of the world, and for foreign expats living and working in Australia we also offer the following services:
- Australian Tax Advice – We provide Australian expatriate tax advisory services (in an international context), to Australian and foreign expats located all over the globe;
- US & UK Tax Advice – We have experience in US and UK tax compliance obligations, and with the help of our partner firms can assist to ensure you receive practical advice that you need;
- Foreign Tax Returns – We are able to assist with the preparation and review your US, UK, Canadian and other country tax returns through various partner firms located around the globe;
- Tax planning services for you and your business so that your tax can be legitimately minimised, practically, legally and efficiently;
- Tax Structuring services for you and your business that minimise your taxation and administrative burdens as efficiently as possible; and,
- Much more – just ask us!
I need some advice. How do I book an appointment?
I need some advice. How do I book an appointment?
We’d be happy to provide you with the advice that you need, after all, that’s what we’re here for. To do so, click the link below, fill out our booking form and before you know it, we’ll be sitting down with you, answering all your questions and more:
Do you provide unlimited support for your tax returns?
Not quite, but we do provide ‘almost unlimited support’ for any tax returns that we prepare for you!
We’d love to say that we do, but alas we can’t! If you’re one of the unlucky ones who have been chosen to be audited by the Australian Taxation Office, separate fees apply! Why? Because it’s literally painful, soul-destroying work . . . for you and for us, and so we charge for that service. As for the ATO, it’s not nearly so painful. In fact, we think that they secretly love auditing taxpayers, whilst the rest of us loathe it.
So, if you exclude tax audits, then we do practically provide unlimited support for your tax returns. For example if you have:
- Problems with your return – If there are any issues with your return, with your refund/payment, or if you are fined or penalised, just let our team know and we’ll deal with it free of charge.
- Questions about your return – If you have a million questions about your return, we’ll happily spend the time with you to explain how everything works.
- Tax questions generally – Best of all, if you have any questions from year to year, literally any tax questions at all, simply book a FREE 30 minute ‘General Enquiry’ appointment with any of our senior tax team. If our team can answer your questions in that timeframe (most can by the way), then . . . we will not charge you no matter how much value that answer provides you! If we can’t answer in that timeframe, we’ll always provide you with a fixed quote in advance so you can decide whether to proceed or not. You’ll never receive a surprise bill from us, ever!
Why do give away free time to our clients?
Tax in one country is complex, but when you straddle two (or more), it can be a nightmare. Due to the complexities it’s easy to get things wrong and to make costly mistakes, even despite your best intentions, and that’s the last thing that we want!
Our job is to be there to support you, to leverage our experience, knowledge and networks to help you minimise the risks, and to maximise your opportunities during your overseas adventure and beyond.
Unlike most firms, we offer this level of support as we don’t think that there should be any disincentive for you to ever ask a question! As your advisors, we believe that our role is not to leave you in the lurch, all alone, half the world away, but to be in your corner and to come out swinging hard when you need us!
And from our perspective, we actively want to support our regular tax return clients who utilise our services from year to year. We’re happy to support you by repaying your loyalty, with support and loyalty of our own (to you)!
A little long-winded, but that’s why how we differ from most firms and its how and why we do what we do!
Hopefully that provides you with openness and clarity about our fees and the philosophies about how we do things and how we charge!
If you still have some questions, just reach out to us and we’ll be happy to answer you.
Is Expat Tax Services a Chartered Accounting firm or a CPA firm?
Although many of our team are qualified CPA’s, we are a Chartered Accounting firm.
We are members of Chartered Accountants ANZ and hold a certificate of public practice from there.
Where are your clients located?
We have clients located in every corner of the globe, not that globes have corners of course, but you know what we mean!
In all seriousness though, at last count (June 2021) we calculated that we have clients located in almost 100 countries around the world (96 countries to be precise)! Although these numbers fluctuate regularly, as you can see, we’ve got quite the reach!
If you’d like to see where, you can take a look here.
We’re constantly surprised at the breadth of locations where our clients live and work.
It’s a constant source of wonderment and amazement for us and it gives us great pleasure and immense pride to see so many Aussies doing amazing things around the world. It’s no wonder that Aussies are in huge demand the world over!
Pricing
How are your tax returns priced?
Unlike most accounting firms, we refuse to charge you hourly rates! Why? There’s so many reasons why, but suffice to say that we think that hourly rates are grossly unfair to our clients.
We believe hourly rates reward service providers like accountants and lawyers for their own inefficiencies, because the more inefficient they are, the more profit they make and that’s simply not fair to you!
As we mentioned above, at Expat Tax Services we refuse to charge hourly rates – our fees are fixed. But this doesn’t mean that we’ll seek to charge you as much as we think we can get away with either! Instead, every client in our client base generally pays the same base, standard fee for the same work.
If their affairs are more complicated than most, then we’ll add various increments to their base, standard fee, but typically, most (approximately 70%) of our clients simply pay the base standard fee and nothing more.
To learn more about our base, standard fee and our pricing generally, reach out to our team below:
Do you offer any discounts?
No, as a general principle we do not discount our fees. As a fixed price accounting firm, we try as hard as possible to provide you, and all of our clients with as much bang for your buck as possible.
As a result, and because there’s only ever a maximum amount of profit that we can ever make on any client engagement, we simply don’t have the room to move. Hence why we don’t discount our fees.
Having said that, there is ONLY one occasion when we will consider reducing our fees, and that is when a client is well behind on their taxes with a least 3 years worth of tax returns outstanding.
In that instance, if we estimate that we can achieve some time savings by preparing multiple tax returns at once, then with the aim of establishing a long term relationship with you, we’re prepared to share those time savings with you in the form of slightly reduced fees, if and where we can.
Do you offer a money-back guarantee?
Great question! Yes we do!
We know that it’s often quite a leap of faith to make a booking for the first time with somebody that you don’t know!
Accordingly we offer all our clients an ironclad, no questions asked, money-back guarantee so that any service that we provide to you is totally risk-free!
So, once you’ve had your appointment with us, if you are not satisfied with the service that you received, or if we were unable to answer your questions to your satisfaction, we guarantee that we will refund the fee that you paid, in full with no questions asked!
That way, there is absolutely no risk to you. So, why wait? Book a tax consultation and get your tax questions resolved today!
Note:
In order to claim your refund, please ensure that you request your refund within 30 days from the completion of any service rendered by our firm to you.
Please note that where any payment processing fees have been deducted from your fee (e.g. when you choose to pay us via PayPal or via credit card), those amounts will not be refunded as we are unable to claim those back from our various payment processing platforms.
Why are your fees charged in USD?
That’s a great question and it’s one that we are often asked! There’s actually a few reasons why we generally charge our fees in US dollars.
- Firstly, unlike most Australian accounting practices, three of our offices and the majority of our team are located outside of Australia. As such, a large proportion of our costs and expenses are denominated in USD. Therefore, in order to minimise our exposure to foreign exchange losses, our fees are charged in USD also.
- As we are a fixed fee accounting firm, with only so much profit that we can make on any job, reducing our exposure to foreign exchange losses becomes critically important as we simply don’t have the margin to move!
- Additionally, with clients in close to 100 countries around the world at last count (96 countries as at 30 June 2021), most of our clients operate and earn their income in USD and so are used to making payments in USD.
As a result of the above, we invoice our clients in USD rather than AUD.
I Want To Be Billed in AUD
However, if you wish to be billed in AUD or in an alternative currency, just let us know.
We’d be happy to invoice you in your preferred currency. Please bear in mind though in doing so, we’ll convert your fee from USD into your preferred currency at the spot rate (as per Google’s quoted exchange rate) at the time of invoicing.
I'm based in Australia. Can you invoice me in AUD?
Yes, in fact our standard practice is to bill Australia based clients in Australian dollars rather than USD.
Clients located in all other regions of the world are billed in USD
If you are not based in Australia and you wish to be billed in AUD, please make that request prior to accepting our standard engagement agreement. Upon such a request, we will invoice you in AUD (converted from USD at the spot rate as per Google at the time of invoicing).
