EOFY Refunds: Why More Australians Are Using a Tax Agent This Year

The end of the financial year used to be a simple routine for many Australians: gather the paperwork, fill in the return and send it off. It has become more involved. More people earn income outside a single job, more work from home and more hold investments, and each of those adds a layer to the return. At the same time, the number of people who use a registered tax agent has grown, because the return is no longer something most people want to get wrong. This guide looks at why more Australians are using a tax agent at EOFY and what a good agent actually does for a refund.

How EOFY habits have changed

The shift is visible in how people approach their return. A generation ago the standard approach was a paper form and a reasonable memory of the year’s expenses. Today the return draws on records from multiple sources: payslips, bank statements, investment records, rental statements and the notes kept in an app through the year. The task has not necessarily become harder in any single part, but it has become longer and easier to make mistakes in. That is the background against which more people decide the return is worth handing to a professional.

Why more people are using a tax agent

The reasons people give for using a tax agent are consistent. The first is that the return has become more complicated, with income from more than one source and deductions that need evidence. The second is that the cost of a mistake has risen, because the ATO can ask for records and amend a return that does not stand up. The third is time, because preparing a return properly takes longer than most people expect. A registered tax agent addresses all three: they know what can be claimed, they keep the return within the rules, and they do the work in a fraction of the time it would take an individual to reconstruct the year.

The deductions most people miss

Most refunds are smaller than they should be because of deductions that are not claimed. Work-related expenses are the common example: equipment bought for work, tools, union or professional fees, self-education and, for many people now, the costs of working from home. The rules around each deduction have conditions, and the ATO expects records to support them. A tax agent knows which deductions apply to the person’s work and circumstances and can tell them what records to keep during the year, so that nothing that can be claimed is missed and nothing that cannot is claimed.

What a registered tax agent changes

A registered tax agent does more than fill in the form. Registration brings obligations that a person preparing their own return does not have, and it gives the taxpayer recourse if something goes wrong. An agent can also lodge later than the standard deadline under the ATO’s agent lodgement program, which gives a taxpayer more time to get the return right. The agent reviews the figures, checks the claims against the person’s situation and lodges a return that is meant to stand up if the ATO looks at it. For someone with a complex return, that is a different service from entering numbers into an online form and submitting them.

Complexity is where the agent earns their fee

The case for an agent strengthens as the return becomes more complex. A person with a salary and a few bank accounts can lodge a simple return in an evening. A person with a side income from gig work, an investment property, shares, or a small business carried on alongside a job has a return with several parts, and the rules differ for each. Rental property claims, capital gains and the deductions available to a small business all carry conditions that are easy to get wrong. It is at that level of complexity that an agent moves from a convenience to a necessity.

Technology and expert advice now work together

Technology has changed how returns are prepared, but it has not replaced the need for advice. Record-keeping apps capture expenses through the year, and the ATO pre-fills much of a return with data from employers, banks and other sources. Those tools make the mechanical part of tax easier. What they do not do is judge whether a claim applies, whether a deduction has been missed or how a particular expense should be treated. That judgement is the agent’s work. The modern pattern is records kept digitally and reviewed by a professional, which combines the convenience of technology with the safety of an expert eye.

EOFY for small business

For a small business, the end of the financial year is a larger exercise than lodging a return. It means finalising the accounts, checking that income and expenses are recorded, dealing with stock on hand, and preparing the reports the business and its accountant need. The tax agent’s role in a business EOFY is to make sure the year is closed properly, because the figures flow into the business’s return and the owner’s personal return. A business that keeps its records current through the year makes EOFY a smoother process and gives the agent the information needed to claim what the business is entitled to.

What a better refund actually comes from

A larger refund is not produced by an agent working magic at the end of the year. It comes from deductions that are claimed because they are real and supported by records, and from a return that is prepared accurately against the rules. That is what a registered tax agent contributes: the knowledge of what can be claimed, the discipline to keep the return within the rules and the time to do the job properly. More Australians are using a tax agent at EOFY because the return has become a task where the cost of getting it wrong is higher than the cost of getting it done well. For anyone whose finances have grown beyond a single payslip, the agent is the difference between a refund that is right and one that is less than it should be.