Authority to Act for clients

Trusted financial intermediaries are professionals who acts for clients. They take on the stress and time needed to navigate many of life’s high risk situations.

But professionals need to provide proof that they have the appropriate authority to act for others. This normally means getting consent from clients. There are many different forms that this consent can take.

This article explores consent and authority to act for clients.

ATO Authority

The Australian Tax Office requires BAS agents and Tax Agents to get authorisation from their clients before they act for them. You can include your BAS or Tax Agent authorisations in 2Shakes so that it is included in your engagement letter with your client. 2Shakes includes the correct wording to this, and makes it easy to get client authority.

STP Annual Authority

If you offer clients payroll services then you will also need to get Single Touch Payroll (STP) authority annually. This authority needs to be refreshed each ‘government’ year with your client. Meaning it runs from 1 July until 30 June. In 2Shakes you can include the STP annual authority in your first engagement letter. You can then renew you STP authority each year as part of the annual renewal of your engagement with your clients.

General Authority

You can add other general authorities into your engagement letter as well. 2Shakes comes with a general authority statement which you can customise in the profile section in 2Shakes.