Plain answers,
straight up.

Yes – and we have to be. Legally, to provide Australian tax advice or tax-preparation services, a person or company must be a registered Tax Agent. Our company, Australian Taxation Services (Aust) Pty Ltd trading as Expat Taxes Australia, is a registered tax agent. Our two principals, Shane Macfarlane and Terryn Davidow, are both registered tax agents in their own right – as are several of our senior team.

Our Tax Agent Number is 25220543. You can verify our registration directly with the Tax Practitioners Board.

Yes – in fact, preparing Australian tax returns is what we do most. For almost twenty years we have specialised in returns for Australian expats living and working in every corner of the globe (115 countries at last count), and for foreign expats living and working in Australia.

Tax-return preparation represents roughly 70% of our work in any given year. The rest is advisory, structuring and planning for those same clients.

Beyond Australian tax returns we also offer:

• Australian tax advice – expatriate tax advisory in an international context, for Australian and foreign expats located all over the globe.
• US & UK tax advice – we have experience with US and UK compliance obligations and, with our partner firms, can deliver practical, joined-up advice.
• Foreign tax returns – through specialist partners, we coordinate US, UK, Canadian, German, Portuguese and other country returns.
• Tax planning – so your tax position is legitimately minimised, practically and efficiently.
• Tax structuring – for you and your business, to minimise both taxation and administrative burdens.
• Much more – just ask.

Easy. Book a consultation, fill out a short form, and one of our senior advisors will sit down with you – by video, in your time zone – and answer your questions. No surprises, no obligation.

Not quite unlimited – but very close. For any return we prepare, you get:

• Issues with your return – if anything goes sideways with the lodgement, refund, payment, or any ATO query, we deal with it free of charge.
• Questions about your return – we will spend the time to walk you through it.
• General tax questions year-to-year – book a free 30-minute General Enquiry appointment with one of our senior advisors. If we can answer in that time (we usually can), you pay nothing. If it needs more, we quote a fixed fee in writing first. You will never get a surprise bill from us.

The only exception: ATO audits. They are painful, soul-destroying work and warrant a separate engagement.

Why give time away? Because tax in one country is complex; across two it is a nightmare. Our job is to leverage our experience, knowledge and networks to minimise your risks and maximise your opportunities. We do not believe there should be any disincentive for you to ask a question.

Although many of our team are qualified CPAs, the firm itself is a Chartered Accounting firm. We are members of Chartered Accountants ANZ and hold a Certificate of Public Practice.

Everywhere. As of January 2025, we serve clients in 115 countries. The number fluctuates, but our reach is wide and constantly surprising – it is a source of genuine pride to see so many Australians doing remarkable things abroad.

Unlike most accounting firms, we refuse to charge hourly rates. We believe hourly billing rewards inefficiency – the slower the work, the higher the fee – and that is grossly unfair to clients.

Our fees are fixed. Every client in our base generally pays the same standard fee for the same work. If your affairs are more complicated than most, we add increments to that base fee – but typically around 70% of our clients pay the standard fee and nothing more.

As a general principle, no. As a fixed-price firm, we are already pricing for maximum bang-for-buck and there is little room to move.

The one exception: if a client is well behind on their taxes – at least three years of returns outstanding – and we can save time by preparing them together, we will share those time savings with you in the form of a slightly reduced fee, with the aim of building a long-term relationship.

Yes – an ironclad, no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee, so any service we provide is totally risk-free.

After your appointment, if you are not satisfied with the service or we did not answer your questions to your satisfaction, we will refund your fee in full.

Two notes: please request your refund within 30 days of completion. Where third-party payment processing fees (PayPal, credit card) have been deducted, those amounts are not refundable – we cannot reclaim them.

Three reasons:

• Three of our four offices and the majority of our team are located outside Australia, so a large share of our costs is denominated in USD. Charging in USD minimises our foreign-exchange exposure.
• As a fixed-fee firm, we have limited margin to absorb FX losses.
• Most of our clients earn and operate in USD anyway, and are accustomed to paying in USD.

If you would prefer to be billed in AUD or another currency, just say so – we will convert at the spot rate (per Google) at the time of invoicing.

Yes. Our standard practice is to bill Australia-based clients in Australian dollars. Clients in all other regions are billed in USD by default.

If you are not based in Australia and would still prefer AUD, please raise it before accepting our standard engagement letter. We will convert from USD at the spot rate at the time of invoicing.

Everything runs through a secure client portal and video meetings scheduled in your time zone. You have one lead advisor for the life of the engagement. We are available year-round – not just at tax time – and most of our team sits outside Australia, so coverage is genuinely global.

Our practice focuses on the Australian side. For the other side of the border, we work with a trusted network of specialist firms in the UK, US, Singapore, UAE, Hong Kong, Canada, Germany, Portugal and elsewhere. We coordinate, brief and review – so you get joined-up advice across both jurisdictions, without having to project-manage it yourself.

Three steps. (1) Book a consultation – paid 60-minute discovery for new advisory matters, or a free 30-minute general enquiry for existing return clients. (2) We send a written engagement letter with a fixed-fee quote before any work begins. (3) Documents and signatures flow through the secure portal; meetings happen on video.

You are assigned a single lead advisor – a senior, registered tax agent – who owns your file. Junior team members support, but every piece of advice and every return is reviewed and signed off by your lead. You will not be passed around, and you will not get a different person each year.

Residency is a facts-and-circumstances determination – not merely a count of days. It hinges on intent, domicile, continuity of abode, and the 183-day test. We look at your contract, family location, accommodation, and ties to Australia, then form a defensible position and document it.

Often yes – at minimum, a non-lodgement advice. Australian-sourced income (rent, interest, franked dividends, capital gains on Australian real property) generally triggers a lodgement obligation regardless of where you live. Even when nothing is owed, a clean lodgement record matters.

This is one of the most consequential questions for departing and returning Australians. Departure can trigger a deemed CGT event (with elections available); return can reset cost bases for some assets and not others. Get the timing wrong and the cost runs into the tens of thousands. Get it right and you sleep well. We model this before you move, not after.

The Foreign Income Tax Offset (FITO) prevents you being taxed twice on the same income. If you are an Australian tax resident with foreign-sourced income that has been taxed overseas, you can generally claim a credit against your Australian tax – subject to caps, source rules and the type of income. We calculate this on every return where it applies.

That is the most common situation – twenty years in, we still hear new ones every week. Book a free 30-minute general enquiry with one of our senior advisors and we will give you a straight answer, or a fixed-fee quote if your matter needs more time.