Accountants: public liability requirements in Australia

Cover for legal liability to third parties for personal injury or property damage arising from business activities.

Data as at 2026-08-25

Verified requirements, by state

Licence liability condition: Yes, where registration applies. Both tax agents and BAS agents must maintain professional indemnity insurance meeting Tax Practitioners Board requirements throughout registration. Failure to do so is a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct and can result in registration being terminated — the sanction is loss of the right to practise, not a fine. NSW · effective 2010-03-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: Notification to the Board within 14 days of receiving registration confirmation, and maintenance of cover for the whole registration period thereafter. It is a notify-and-maintain obligation rather than a document filed once. NSW · effective 2010-03-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: There is NO general accountant licence in Australia — accounting itself is an unregulated occupation, and membership of CPA Australia, CA ANZ or the IPA is voluntary professional membership, not a licence. What IS regulated is the work: providing tax agent services for a fee requires registration as a tax agent with the Tax Practitioners Board, under federal law. So the honest answer to "am I licensed?" depends entirely on what services are being sold, not on the job title. NSW · effective 2010-03-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, where registration applies. Both tax agents and BAS agents must maintain professional indemnity insurance meeting Tax Practitioners Board requirements throughout registration. Failure to do so is a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct and can result in registration being terminated — the sanction is loss of the right to practise, not a fine. VIC · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: Notification to the Board within 14 days of receiving registration confirmation, and maintenance of cover for the whole registration period thereafter. A notify-and-maintain obligation rather than a document filed once. VIC · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: Nobody licenses accountants as such — there is no general accountant licence in Victoria or anywhere else in Australia, and membership of CPA Australia, CA ANZ or the IPA is voluntary professional membership rather than a licence. What IS regulated is the work: providing tax agent services for a fee or reward requires registration as a tax agent with the Tax Practitioners Board under federal law. So the honest answer to "am I licensed?" depends on what services are sold, not on the job title. VIC · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, where registration applies. Both tax agents and BAS agents must maintain professional indemnity insurance meeting Tax Practitioners Board requirements throughout registration. Failure to do so is a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct and can result in registration being terminated — the sanction is loss of the right to practise, not a fine. QLD · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: Notification to the Board within 14 days of receiving registration confirmation, and maintenance of cover for the whole registration period thereafter. A notify-and-maintain obligation rather than a document filed once. QLD · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: Nobody licenses accountants as such — there is no general accountant licence in Queensland or anywhere else in Australia, and membership of CPA Australia, CA ANZ or the IPA is voluntary professional membership rather than a licence. What IS regulated is the work: providing tax agent services for a fee or reward requires registration as a tax agent with the Tax Practitioners Board under federal law. So the honest answer to "am I licensed?" depends on what services are sold, not on the job title. QLD · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, where registration applies. Both tax agents and BAS agents must maintain professional indemnity insurance meeting Tax Practitioners Board requirements throughout registration. Failure to do so is a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct and can result in registration being terminated — the sanction is loss of the right to practise, not a fine. WA · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: Notification to the Board within 14 days of receiving registration confirmation, and maintenance of cover for the whole registration period thereafter. A notify-and-maintain obligation rather than a document filed once. WA · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: Nobody licenses accountants as such — there is no general accountant licence in Western Australia or anywhere else in Australia, and membership of CPA Australia, CA ANZ or the IPA is voluntary professional membership rather than a licence. What IS regulated is the work: providing tax agent services for a fee or reward requires registration as a tax agent with the Tax Practitioners Board under federal law. So the honest answer to "am I licensed?" depends on what services are sold, not on the job title. WA · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, where registration applies. Both tax agents and BAS agents must maintain professional indemnity insurance meeting Tax Practitioners Board requirements throughout registration. Failure to do so is a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct and can result in registration being terminated — the sanction is loss of the right to practise, not a fine. SA · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: Notification to the Board within 14 days of receiving registration confirmation, and maintenance of cover for the whole registration period thereafter. A notify-and-maintain obligation rather than a document filed once. SA · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: Nobody licenses accountants as such — there is no general accountant licence in South Australia or anywhere else in Australia, and membership of CPA Australia, CA ANZ or the IPA is voluntary professional membership rather than a licence. What IS regulated is the work: providing tax agent services for a fee or reward requires registration as a tax agent with the Tax Practitioners Board under federal law. So the honest answer to "am I licensed?" depends on what services are sold, not on the job title. SA · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, where registration applies. Both tax agents and BAS agents must maintain professional indemnity insurance meeting Tax Practitioners Board requirements throughout registration. Failure to do so is a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct and can result in registration being terminated — the sanction is loss of the right to practise, not a fine. TAS · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: Notification to the Board within 14 days of receiving registration confirmation, and maintenance of cover for the whole registration period thereafter. A notify-and-maintain obligation rather than a document filed once. TAS · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: Nobody licenses accountants as such — there is no general accountant licence in Tasmania or anywhere else in Australia, and membership of CPA Australia, CA ANZ or the IPA is voluntary professional membership rather than a licence. What IS regulated is the work: providing tax agent services for a fee or reward requires registration as a tax agent with the Tax Practitioners Board under federal law. So the honest answer to "am I licensed?" depends on what services are sold, not on the job title. TAS · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, where registration applies. Both tax agents and BAS agents must maintain professional indemnity insurance meeting Tax Practitioners Board requirements throughout registration. Failure to do so is a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct and can result in registration being terminated — the sanction is loss of the right to practise, not a fine. ACT · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: Notification to the Board within 14 days of receiving registration confirmation, and maintenance of cover for the whole registration period thereafter. A notify-and-maintain obligation rather than a document filed once. ACT · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: Nobody licenses accountants as such — there is no general accountant licence in the Australian Capital Territory or anywhere else in Australia, and membership of CPA Australia, CA ANZ or the IPA is voluntary professional membership rather than a licence. What IS regulated is the work: providing tax agent services for a fee or reward requires registration as a tax agent with the Tax Practitioners Board under federal law. So the honest answer to "am I licensed?" depends on what services are sold, not on the job title. ACT · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, where registration applies. Both tax agents and BAS agents must maintain professional indemnity insurance meeting Tax Practitioners Board requirements throughout registration. Failure to do so is a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct and can result in registration being terminated — the sanction is loss of the right to practise, not a fine. NT · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: Notification to the Board within 14 days of receiving registration confirmation, and maintenance of cover for the whole registration period thereafter. A notify-and-maintain obligation rather than a document filed once. NT · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: Nobody licenses accountants as such — there is no general accountant licence in the Northern Territory or anywhere else in Australia, and membership of CPA Australia, CA ANZ or the IPA is voluntary professional membership rather than a licence. What IS regulated is the work: providing tax agent services for a fee or reward requires registration as a tax agent with the Tax Practitioners Board under federal law. So the honest answer to "am I licensed?" depends on what services are sold, not on the job title. NT · effective 2010-07-01 Tax Practitioners Board · 2026-08-24

By state and territory

Licensing is a state matter, so the requirement behind this cover changes at the border. These pages track the licence question in each jurisdiction.

What contracts commonly ask for

Principals and head contractors set their own insurance requirements, and those are frequently higher than a licence condition. The requirement that binds is the higher of the two, and both have to be read from the actual document.

What this cover costs

This site publishes no cost benchmark for this cover. A benchmark needs a real sample of documents, and none is published until the sample is large enough to compute a median honestly. A benchmark from a handful of policies is a guess with a decimal point.

Sources

Tax Practitioners Board — Tax Practitioners Board — professional indemnity insurance