moneyGPS Advice
The Tax Return Isn’t Disappearing, But Its Strategic Value Is Changing
Estimated reading time: 3 – 4 minutes
For accounting firms, one of the most important questions over the next five years may have very little to do with tax:
What will make clients continue to value their accountant when more traditional compliance work becomes digital, automated and increasingly standardised?
Australians are not abandoning accountants. Tax agents remain deeply embedded in our tax system, lodging 61% of individual income tax returns and 95% of non-individual returns in 2023–24.¹
That represents an extraordinary position of trust.
But technology is changing the economics of compliance. ATO pre-fill, myTax, cloud accounting, automated bookkeeping, AI-assisted workflows and low-cost digital services are steadily reducing the human intervention required for simpler work.
The conclusion isn’t that tax compliance will disappear.
It is that compliance alone will become increasingly difficult to differentiate.
And that creates an important strategic opportunity.
The real asset is the client relationship
Accounting firms possess something many financial services businesses spend enormous amounts trying to acquire: an established, trusted financial relationship.
Accountants understand their clients’ income, businesses and structures. They see their superannuation contributions, investments and debt. They often understand family circumstances and retirement intentions.
Yet for many firms, that valuable relationship is still activated principally around tax and annual compliance.
The opportunity is to transform it from an annual compliance relationship into an ongoing financial relationship.
That doesn’t mean accountants need to become financial advisers.
Instead, firms can position themselves as the gateway through which broader financial needs are identified and addressed.
An advice gap is sitting directly beside the accountant
Australia has a substantial unmet advice problem.
Government research has previously identified that four in five Australians aged 45–54 need financial advice but cannot afford it, while 74% of Australians aged 18–34 have unmet advice needs.²
At the same time, the Financial Advisers Register stood at approximately 15,146 relevant financial advisers in August 2026.³
The traditional advice profession simply cannot economically service every Australian who needs assistance.
That creates a significant gap between doing nothing and obtaining comprehensive traditional financial advice.
Many clients instead need help with relatively contained issues: super contributions, investment choice, consolidation, retirement planning, cash flow, budgeting, debt or insurance.
And often, the professional they will naturally ask first is their accountant.
From tax return to financial check-up
Imagine changing the annual client conversation.
Instead of beginning and ending with last year’s numbers, ask:
How financially resilient is this client? Are they making appropriate super contributions? Are they approaching retirement? Is their debt manageable? Are there financial decisions they have postponed because advice seemed too expensive or complicated?
The accounting firm doesn’t necessarily need to provide the resulting financial advice itself.
A contemporary model can allow the accountant to identify the need, provide education and then connect the client to an appropriately licensed digital or professional advice pathway.
The moneyGPS Advice model supports precisely this transition: moving beyond the once-a-year tax interaction into ongoing conversations around financial wellbeing, superannuation, budgeting, cash flow and advice.
Why this matters commercially
If the client’s principal interaction with an accountant is the preparation of a tax return, price and convenience become increasingly important comparison points.
If the accountant also helps clients understand their financial position, identifies opportunities and risks, provides education and facilitates affordable advice, the relationship becomes much harder to replace.
That can create stronger retention, more frequent engagement, broader service opportunities and greater lifetime client value.
Most importantly, it differentiates the firm from increasingly commoditised compliance alternatives.
This isn’t primarily a technology strategy.
It is a client relationship strategy enabled by technology.
A strategic question for every accounting firm
The accounting profession has spent decades building trust.
The next question is how broadly that trust can support clients’ financial lives.
Rather than asking:
“Will technology replace the tax return?”
A more valuable question may be:
“If technology makes compliance easier and cheaper to deliver, what higher-value relationship are we building around it?”
The firms that answer that question now can evolve from being primarily compliance providers into an increasingly important part of their clients’ financial decision-making ecosystem.
Ultimately, that relationship may be considerably more valuable than the tax return itself.
Interested in building more value around your client relationships?
If you are thinking about how your firm can move beyond annual compliance and identify broader financial needs across your client base, we would be happy to show you how moneyGPS Advice can support that transition.
Book a free chat with the moneyGPS team.
Prefer to chat? Call us on 0410 590 526
Sources & References
1. Tax Practitioners Board, Annual Report 2024–25. The report states that the most recent ATO statistics show registered tax agents lodged 61% of 2023–24 individual income tax returns and 95% of non-individual income tax returns.
2. Australian Government, Treasury Ministers, Ensuring Australians can access safe, quality and affordable financial advice, 4 December 2024.
3. Financial Newswire, Adviser numbers rise to 15,146, 21 August 2026, reporting WealthData analysis of the ASIC Financial Advisers Register.
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