UniSA Tax Clinic operates as a tax and accounting practice within a university setting providing free tax advice, advocacy, representation and education to eligible taxpayers throughout South Australia.
UniSA Tax Clinic empowers its clients by providing them with tools and training to help them tackle their current and future tax problems, for example, by showing them how to use mytax or providing spreadsheets tailored to their needs to record income and expenses. Where the client is particularly vulnerable, or needs special advocacy in dealing with the ATO, our registered tax agent, Belinda Harrison, can use her tax agent registration to engage with ATO systems.
Students gain experience by getting directly involved in all aspects of the clinic including meeting with clients, completing their accounts and returns and conducting research into specific tax matters as required. Students are exposed to current accounting and business tools such as Xero, MYOB and Dropbox.
UniSA Tax Clinic collaborates with Western Sydney University Tax Clinic and University of Tasmania Tax Clinic to produce research aimed at addressing systemic issues with the administration of the tax system. It tells the stories of vulnerable taxpayers through the eyes of each clinic’s advisor and suggests changes to tax law and administration to prevent other taxpayers from experiencing the same.
Dr Rob Whait – Director
Belinda Harrison – Registered Tax Agent
How UniSA Tax Clinic operates
UniSA Tax Clinic operates under the registered tax agent model and can provide a full suite of tax agent services. The registered tax agent, Belinda Harrison, has been with the clinic since 2019 and has over 20 years of experience. Eligibility is assessed based on income and/or personal circumstances. Inquiries can be made at:
The clinic is open for client meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10am to 4pm across 48 weeks per year.
The clinic’s office is located at UniSA’s City West campus on North Terrace, Adelaide. It serves regional and remote areas of the state virtually or by visiting locations with numerous clients in need. Clients can request either an in person or virtual appointment upon inquiry. Home visits are offered to those with mobility or other health issues.
Year in review: UniSA Tax Clinic
- Visits to Naracoorte, Bordertown and Murray Bridge.
- Meeting with participants of the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.
- Assisting with tax debts: payment plans, on hold, hardship applications.
- Assisting with remission of general interest charge and penalties including failure to lodge penalties.
- General assistance with myGov and myTax.
- Help with filing amendments and objections.
- Advising in relation to foreign income issues.
- Assessing the impact of residency and visas on individual tax returns.
- Advising on the tax treatment of cryptocurrency.
- Advice regarding assessable income and deductions.
- Substantiation and record keeping assistance, including providing worksheets.
Highlights for 2023
In 2023, the UniSA tax clinic:
- operated for 48 weeks
- had 22 students
- had 504 client facing hours
- invested 1,980 student hours
- assisted 301 clients
- lodged 166 current year returns
- lodged 265 prior years returns
- resolved 76% of matters (unresolved matters represent work in progress at reporting date).
Testimonial
“I just wanted to extend an enormous thank you for your support of [name withheld] and the outcome you were able to gain for him. It is just incredible. That is just such an amazing result for him, his life, his stress levels and wellbeing and how he can live going forward.
Thank you for the way you worked with him and also supported him in working through his tax lodgments.
It had been such a long time working towards those results for him, thank you for everything and the way you spoke and showed empathy and kindness to his situation.”
Client story
Client W presented to the tax clinic in July 2022 with multiple outstanding company and individual tax returns plus a company tax debt of about $70,000 of which the ATO was demanding immediate payment. Client W had previously seen an accountant to try and help him get up to date, but cost and access to data had proven to be major hurdles. Client W admitted that he tended to avoid his potential financial problems and let his tax obligations get out of hand. He also did not understand the consequence of the company’s accruing PAYG instalments and was not aware that he could have varied them down to reflect the actual income of the company.
The tax clinic was able to help Client W to address his debt and lodgment issues and get him up to date over the next 12-18 months. This included preparing financial statements and tax returns for the company for 5 years and also his personal tax returns for those years. Once the company’s accrued debt had been adjusted to reflect the company’s actual activity, the debt was reduced to about $10,000.
Naracoorte visit – Belinda
UniSA Tax Clinic visited Naracoorte in 2023 to meet with members of the Kiribati community working in Australia under the PALM scheme. They needed assistance with their income tax returns and understanding the Australian tax system generally.
With one person in the group kindly acting as translator, we realised the initial idea of a general education session was not going to be effective. Instead, with their approval, we opened each of their returns in MyGov and prepared the returns for them then and there. Issues discussed included the impact on the tax-free threshold of their first year in Australia, Medicare Entitlement Statements and issues caused by not getting proper tax agent advice previously (such as incorrect returns or stolen MyGov details). This issue, of friends/colleagues ‘helping’ people to prepare their MyGov, appears to be a problem in such communities where money is tight and they can’t afford an agent and/or they tend to trust most those who speak their language and/or already have connections to the community. Hopefully the clinic’s visit, and those in the future, will go some way to preventing this happening in the future.