The number of ‘finfluencers’ are on the rise. These are influencers who offer financial advice, including tax advice, on various social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Unfortunately, they don’t always have the necessary qualifications to give out this advice or provide all the information you need to make a fully informed decision. This can result in you losing thousands of dollars and cause you serious financial harm. 

The main way ‘finfluencers’ make their money is by getting paid by companies that want to promote their financial products through the ‘finfluencer’s’ social media platform. These financial products may not be suitable for you and the ‘finfluencer’ may not fully understand all the risks of promoting this to you. This is why if you’re going to use someone to help you manage your tax affairs or give you tax advice, make sure they’re registered with us by checking our TPB Register. Tax practitioners registered with us must be fully qualified to give you tax advice and prepare your tax return. Additionally, tax practitioners must possess professional indemnity insurance – a consumer protection device to cover you if you suffer a loss due to an error or omission as a result of tax agent services which is a protection unlikely to be offered by a ‘finfluencer’.

Important tips you should know:

• The best place to get accurate tax information is ato.gov.au. Check this website to confirm any tax advice you receive.
• If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Think twice before acting on financial and tax advice from a ‘finfluencer’.
• Beware of anyone offering ‘free expert’ tax advice. You should always approach a registered tax practitioner instead. 
• Beware of websites that might be trying to harvest your personal information such as your tax file number, identity details or myGov login details.
• If you want to make a complaint about someone offering tax advice, submit a complaint to us. 

Further Information

Finding and using a tax practitioner

Risks of using unregistered preparers