The Evolution of Tax Audits in Australia is a three-part series exploring the ways in which the audit landscape is changing in 2022 and beyond.

In this third and final session of the series, we're joined by industry experts to unpack the best strategies for tax audit prevention, defence, and resolution.

WHAT YOU'LL HEAR ABOUT

• ATO focus areas and tax audit triggers
• How to reduce audit frequency and severity
• Audit defence strategies during the review stage
• Tactics for efficient audit resolution and management

OUR PANEL

Trent McLaren| Head of Strategic Channels

Trent, who was named ‘Thought Leader of the Year’ at the 2017 Australian Accounting Awards, has nearly a decade of industry experience under his belt, having led sales, accounting and partnership teams in Australia, Europe and North America.

He began his career at online payment gateway eWAY, moving up the ranks to become a Xero Ambassador. Trent has also held leadership roles throughout his career at globally recognised companies, including Intuit, Practice Ignition and TOA Global.

As Head of Accounting and Strategic Channels at DiviPay, Trent is responsible for building a strategy and network of external accountants and bookkeepers, and supporting them to establish their own clients on the DiviPay platform.

Bruce Collins | Former ATO Assistant Commissioner | Principal at Tax Controversy Partners

Bruce is the founder and principal solicitor at Tax Controversy Partners Pty Limited, currently helping clients to resolve all types of tax issues issues with the ATO and SROs.

Before moving into private practice in 2017, Bruce worked for over 35 years in the Tax Office, a third of this time as a Senior Executive in what is now Client Engagement Group, covering most ATO functions. Bruce was the leader of the Technical & Case Leadership area in Private Wealth for several years prior to leaving the ATO, as well as having previously been the strategic leader for many of the ATO’s small business and private group audit programs.

Bruce has an Accounting Certificate, a First-Class Honours Degree in Law, a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, a Masters of Taxation and a Masters of International Taxation. Bruce is a Chartered Tax Advisor with the Tax Institute, a member of the Law Society of NSW and is a member of the Law Council of Australia, a member of their Tax Committee and current Chair of their SME Business Law Committee.

Rebecca Mihalic | Director at businessDEPOT Sydney, Head Of Accounting (APAC) at Ignition

Rebecca has over 15 years’ experience providing taxation, accounting, business and tech advisory services to small to large enterprises throughout Australia. Rebecca’s career has seen a focus on working with clients in Building & Construction, Education, Hospitality, Recruitment and Health Services.

Rebecca’s belief that small business is the backbone of the Australian economy drives her determination to provide SMEs the tools they need to understand the financial position of their businesses in real time. One of Rebecca’s strengths lies with her ability to implement technology that provides small and medium businesses the same insights into their organisations as large corporates with infinite resources. This allows Rebecca clients to make relevant and timely decisions based upon sound and up to date financial data.

To support this work with SMEs Rebecca co-founded Aptus Accounting & Advisory in 2015. Aptus focused on leveraging technology to support client growth and this focus on tech advisory and efficient business services saw the firm winning 'Innovator of the year' at the 2018 Australian Accounting Awards. In 2019 Aptus joined the businessDEPOT team to expand the firm’s service offerings to their clients, where Rebecca now leased in the Sydney based operations.

Rebecca has earned a reputation for her leadership, passion and commitment to the accounting industry and recently won 'Thought Leader of the Year' in the 2021 Australian Accounting Awards.

Adi Snir | Partnerships Director at AuditCover

Adi is the Director of Partnerships at AuditCover. Adi began his career as a digital marketing consultant for Fairfax in 2010. Following the completion of his Arts/Law degree at UTS, Adi worked as the marketing director at venture-backed law firm, LegalVision, and was recognised as a driver of change and innovation in the legal field, having received the Legal Innovation Index recognition from Lexis Nexis for his work in improving access to legal information.

Adi is on a similar mission to improve insurance access, delivery and distribution through his work at AuditCover.

AUDITCOVER

AuditCover is a new breed of insurance provider that delivers smarter tax audit protection.

AuditCover looks at things differently and questions the status quo. By challenging old ways of thinking, we can change the insurance industry and provide products and user experiences that our customers believe in.

By taking a digital first approach, managing client data securely, and building an insurance product that covers the taxpayer directly, AuditCover makes audit insurance a seamless process for everyone.

No painful paperwork, no lengthy setup times, and absolutely no leaky data. Accounting firms can partner with a distribution platform that does all the work, so you don’t have to. Everyone knows where they stand and no one gets caught in the middle.

It’s about simpler audit protection the whole way.