Offshore Tax and BAS Accountants for Australian Accounting Practices

Built for accounting practices

This role is usually hired by Australian accounting or tax practices that have more compliance work than their local team can process, especially through the July–October and February–May peaks. An offshore accountant prepares the work. Your registered tax agent reviews, signs and lodges. The partner stays responsible and the client relationship stays local, while preparation hours move to a lower-cost, full-time team member.

What your offshore tax accountant prepares

• Individual returns. Rental property schedules, work-related deductions, capital gains and sole-trader income, with a review checklist completed.
• Company, trust and partnership returns. Tax reconciliations, Division 7A loan calculations and trust distribution workings.
• Activity statements. BAS and IAS preparation, GST reconciliations and PAYG instalment checks.
• Year-end financials. Special-purpose financial statements and journals from client bookkeeping files.
• Workpapers. Standardised, cross-referenced workpapers that make review faster.
• Client document collection. Chasing missing information through your portal and tracking jobs in your workflow tool.
• Lodgement tracking. Keeping the practice's lodgement program up to date so deadlines don't slip.

Practice software we screen for

We screen for the stack Australian practices use most:

• Practice: Xero Practice Manager, Xero Tax, FYI Docs, Karbon, APS, MYOB AE/AO, CCH iFirm
• Lodgement and data: HandiTax, LodgeiT, BGL Simple Fund 360 and Class (for SMSF work), ATO Online services for agents (access granted by you)
• Client files: Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks Online, plus Excel for workpapers
• Workpapers: Xero Workpapers, Senta, Ignition for engagement letters

Qualifications and Australian tax knowledge

• Sri Lanka: CA Sri Lanka and ACCA members and finalists, many with experience in Sri Lankan firms that serve Australian practices. Sri Lanka has an established industry preparing Australian compliance work.
• Philippines: Philippine CPAs (licensed by the PRC Board of Accountancy), often with several tax seasons of Australian work through outsourcing firms.
• Everyone: a skills assessment on Australian tax work, for example an individual return with a rental property, a GST adjustment and a Division 7A loan. Your practice can add its own test too.

Your practice remains responsible under the Tax Agent Services Act for supervising the work and for client confidentiality. Check the Tax Practitioners Board's guidance and your engagement letters before moving client data offshore.

Sri Lanka vs the Philippines for a tax accountant

Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) is 4.5 hours behind AEST and 5.5 behind AEDT. Practices often use the gap deliberately: jobs reviewed in Australia in the afternoon are corrected and returned by the next morning. Sri Lanka has a long history of preparing Australian tax returns for offshore practices. CA Sri Lanka and ACCA-qualified candidates with direct Australian tax experience are easier to find there than in most markets.

The Philippines (UTC+8) is 2 hours behind AEST, 3 behind AEDT, so your tax accountant works practically your hours. That suits practices where the offshore accountant joins team huddles, talks to clients about missing documents, or works side by side with juniors on the same jobs during peak season. The Philippine CPA pool is large, and many candidates have worked Australian tax seasons.

Plan options for a tax accountant

Most practices already have a review structure, so Ready for You suits them. Pay the one-off fee, then choose who employs them. Practices building their first offshore team, or adding several accountants before tax season, often prefer Managed for You. It has no upfront recruitment fee, includes onboarding playbooks, and extends the guarantee to 5 months with up to two free replacements.

Team member wages are paid on top of either plan. Multi-hire savings are available.

IT options (pick any, with any plan): Self-managed, where you or your team member supply the equipment. Hardware coordination, where we buy and configure a laptop that you own. IT management, where we handle devices, setup and security, with leasing available. See IT security.

Frequently asked questions