Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Bookkeepers: cyber liability requirements in Australia

Cover for the costs of a data breach or cyber incident, including response, restoration and third-party liability.

Data as at

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 bookkeeper licence in Australia — bookkeeping itself is unregulated. What IS regulated is the work: a person providing a BAS service for a fee or other reward must be registered as a BAS 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 bookkeepers as such — there is no general bookkeeper 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 BAS services for a fee or reward requires registration as a BAS 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 bookkeepers as such — there is no general bookkeeper 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 BAS services for a fee or reward requires registration as a BAS 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 bookkeepers as such — there is no general bookkeeper 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 BAS services for a fee or reward requires registration as a BAS 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 bookkeepers as such — there is no general bookkeeper 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 BAS services for a fee or reward requires registration as a BAS 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 bookkeepers as such — there is no general bookkeeper 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 BAS services for a fee or reward requires registration as a BAS 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 bookkeepers as such — there is no general bookkeeper 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 BAS services for a fee or reward requires registration as a BAS 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 bookkeepers as such — there is no general bookkeeper 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 BAS services for a fee or reward requires registration as a BAS 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

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