CPE activities that you complete must be relevant to the tax agent or BAS services you provide and contribute to maintaining or improving your professional knowledge and skills. Eligible activities may include seminars, webinars, courses, lectures, structured conferences and discussion groups, computer/internet assisted courses, audiotape/videotape packages, podcasts, attendance at structured in-house training, technical or professional reading, and educative health and wellbeing activities. These activities may cover topics such as software training, AI training, ethics, business management, digital literacy, and risk and compliance education, provided they are relevant to the services you provide.

Your CPE period is generally 3 years and begins on the date you register with the TPB. If you are a member of a recognised professional association, you may elect to align your CPE period with the calendar year, financial year or other period required by that association. 

Yes. In addition to meeting the total CPE requirement over 3 years, you must meet the minimum annual requirement. When renewing registration, you declare that you are meeting the annual minimum and remain on track to satisfy the overall 3-year requirement. 

Generally, yes. The TPB recognises CPE undertaken for recognised professional associations as meeting TPB requirements, provided the activities are relevant to the services you provide. You do not need to maintain an additional CPE record if you already maintain a record to satisfy your association’s requirements.

You must maintain contemporaneous records that contain sufficient detail to demonstrate the relevance of the activity to the tax agent or BAS services you provide. There is no requirement to use the TPB CPE log; timesheets, association records and other suitable records may be used. Records should be retained for five years after the end of the relevant CPE period. 

You may elect to align your CPE period with the period required by your recognised professional association. You do not need to advise the TPB, but you should keep a record of your elected CPE period. Once an election is made, it generally cannot be changed unless you change associations. 

Yes. Live or recorded webinars may count as structured CPE provided the content is relevant to the tax or BAS services you provide. This includes TPB webinars, ATO webinars and webinars offered by software providers or professional associations. 

Yes. Recorded webinars and TPB YouTube content may count towards CPE if they are relevant to the tax or BAS services you provide. Whether the activity is structured or unstructured depends on the format and level of interaction. 

Yes. Training on accounting and tax software such as Xero, MYOB or similar platforms may be counted where it relates to the services you provide. Where only parts of a program are relevant, only those components should be counted.  

Yes. AI and digital literacy training may count as CPE where it is relevant to the tax or BAS services you provide and contributes to maintaining or improving your service delivery, professional capability or practice management. 

Yes. Reading technical or professional materials such as ATO guidance, legislation, rulings, journals and publications can be counted as unstructured CPE, provided it is relevant to your work. However, technical or professional reading is limited to a maximum of 25% of the total CPE hours required to be completed over your CPE period. 

Yes. Relevant tax or BAS podcasts may count. A podcast that is simply listened to would generally be classified as unstructured CPE. Interactive podcast sessions that involve discussion or live participation may qualify as structured CPE. 

Formal study may count where the topics are relevant to the services you provide. However, study undertaken to satisfy the registration eligibility requirements cannot also be counted towards CPE. For example, board-approved courses completed to obtain registration cannot later be claimed as CPE. 

If the study is being undertaken to gain registration, those hours cannot be counted as CPE. However, a BAS agent studying tax subjects may count those components that are directly relevant to the BAS services they currently provide, provided they were not undertaken solely to meet registration requirements. 

Yes. AML/CTF education can be counted where it is relevant to the tax or BAS services you provide. Only the components relevant to professional practice should be included. 

No. The TPB does not mandate specific CPE topics. However, ethics, governance, risk management and professional conduct courses are recognised as relevant activities where they relate to the services you provide. 

The TPB expects part-time tax practitioners to maintain the same standard of competence as full-time tax practitioners and generally requires the same minimum CPE to be completed across your CPE period. However, relief may be considered where genuine extenuating circumstances exist, including parental leave, caring responsibilities, illness or other special circumstances. Relief may be considered where tax practitioners can demonstrate they have attempted to use the flexibility available within their 3-year CPE period to manage any extenuating circumstances. 

The TPB allows health and wellbeing activities to count as CPE where they support professional capability. However, these activities can make up no more than 10% of the total CPE completed during the relevant CPE period. Evidence should still be retained. 

You should keep evidence such as certificates of attendance, webinar confirmations, attendance records, association logs, notes, timesheets, training records or other contemporaneous documentation. For online learning, record the date the activity was completed, not when it was purchased. 

You must use your professional judgment to assess whether an activity is relevant to the tax agent or BAS services you provide. The key test is whether the activity contributes to maintaining or improving your knowledge and skills necessary to competently provide those services. This applies across technical training, software training, AI, governance, conferences, research, webinars and technical or professional reading.