Accounting students from the Australian National University (ANU) are volunteering to provide taxation advice to underrepresented people in four new clinics across Canberra.
The clinics are a partnership with Anglicare, Belconnen Community Centre and Woden Community Centre and form part of a national trial to help people understand their tax obligations and navigate the Australian taxation system.
Professor with the College of Business and Economics at ANU, Juliana Ng said the clinics were timely with the passing of the Government’s new tax plans.
Professor Ng said the students were competitively chosen to work in the clinics and would be supervised and mentored by practising tax accountants.
“We’ve chosen the very best students to work in the clinics,” Ms Ng said.
“Their knowledge of income tax and tax related matters mean they’ll be well equipped to confidently deal with questions coming up in the clinics.”
Assistant Taxation Commissioner Damien Browne said the national tax clinic trial was designed in part to determine the level of demand from the community for that kind of service.
He said the ANU was selected along with nine other universities across Australia to run the tax clinic trial.
“The trial is allowing us to test the waters and refine the service offer of the clinics,” Mr Browne said
“The ATO sees the trial as complementing our existing range of help and support services for unrepresented taxpayers.”
