Getting through tax time in an accounting practice

Why so much lands before 31 October

Most of the pressure comes from one date. 31 October is the due date for people who lodge their own return, and it's also the last day an agent can add a new client to their lodgment program. So the people who meant to lodge themselves but haven't, those changing accountants and those starting a business all need to be on the books before the cut-off. They arrive just as the regular work peaks.

The same date catches clients who are behind. Anyone with earlier returns still outstanding at 30 June must lodge them all by 31 October, and if they do, their current return moves back onto the normal program dates. Finishing a client's back years before the cut-off can therefore give the current year several more months.

After October, the program spreads the remaining returns out to 15 May, with a concession to 5 June for some clients. That's why the pace eases in November even though business, trust and company returns keep coming due. In 2026, 31 October falls on a Saturday, so lodgments due that day can be made on Monday 2 November.

Keeping a long list moving

When the list is long, it's tempting to work through files in the order they arrive. A little sorting at the start of each week usually saves more time than it costs:

• Sort by due date and by completeness. Files that are complete and due earliest come first. Anything waiting on the client can sit until it's ready.
• Ask for everything at once. When you first review a file, send the client one full list of questions, not a new request each time you find a gap.
• Keep a record of what you asked for and when. If a client gave the practice everything it needed in time, the ATO's safe harbour rules generally protect them from a late lodgment penalty. Your note of what was requested and when it arrived is what shows that, and it also shows at a glance which files are waiting on whom.
• Check who is on a later date. A return due in May may be able to wait if an October return is at risk, although the client may still expect it sooner.
• Tell your manager about stuck files early, with the reason, before they become urgent.

The pace can also make it tempting to push a return through on whatever the client sent. The standards don't relax in October, though. The Tax Practitioners Board's Code of Professional Conduct requires registered agents to provide their services competently and with reasonable care, and since 2025 it has also required them to train and supervise unregistered staff properly. If you're not yet registered, your work goes out under a partner's or director's registration. So if reviews are being skipped because the queue is long, or you're handed work you haven't been shown how to do, it's reasonable to raise it. Supervision is an obligation the practice carries, not a favour you're asking for.

Long weeks, overtime and what your contract says

Whether you're paid for extra hours depends first on whether an award covers you. According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, qualified accountants employed by an accounting firm usually aren't covered by one. That means there's no automatic overtime rate, and your contract decides whether you're paid for extra hours, given time off in lieu or offered a busy-season bonus. It's worth checking what yours actually says, including any clause about additional hours, before tax time starts.

Other staff can be in a different position. Bookkeepers, accounts clerks and payroll officers may be covered by the Clerks Award if their work is mainly clerical, and then the award's overtime rules apply. Our guide to overtime pay and time in lieu explains how those work.

Whatever your contract says, the National Employment Standards still apply. A full-time employee can't be asked to work more than 38 hours a week unless the extra hours are reasonable, and you can refuse hours that aren't. Whether they're reasonable depends on things like your health and safety, your personal circumstances, the practice's needs, how much notice you had and whether your pay reflects an expectation of longer hours. A predictable few busy weeks is likely to be judged differently from long hours that never ease, and a senior manager's salary differently from a graduate's.

You may hear that the long weeks before October even out over summer. An employer and an award-free employee can agree to average hours over up to 26 weeks, but the agreement has to be in writing, and nobody can be forced into one. Without it, your hours are counted week by week. It also helps to keep your own record of the hours you work. The Fair Work Ombudsman's free Record My Hours app is one easy way, and a record gives you something concrete to bring to a conversation later.

Two other rules are useful to know at this time of year. Your employer can refuse annual leave only if the refusal is reasonable, and a refusal in the fortnight before a major deadline is more likely to be reasonable than one in a quiet month, so plan leave early in the year. And under the right to disconnect, you can generally refuse to monitor or respond to calls and emails outside your working hours, including from clients, unless that refusal is unreasonable. Our article on work-life balance explains how reasonableness is judged.

If you work for a sole trader or partnership practice in Western Australia, you may be in the state system instead. Wageline (1300 655 266) can tell you which rules apply.

When busy has become a problem

A few heavy months are a normal part of tax work. It becomes something else when the load doesn't ease, when it affects your health, or when you're asked to do more than you have the time or training to do properly. Safe Work Australia treats high job demands as a workplace hazard when they are severe, prolonged or frequent, and employers have a duty to manage that risk like any other.

Signs worth taking seriously include:

• your hours are still well above your contract in December or January
• you're regularly missing breaks or working late into the night to keep up
• errors are creeping in, or you're lodging work you aren't confident is right
• you can't get work reviewed or get an answer when you're stuck
• your sleep, health or life outside work is suffering

Raising it with your manager

A workload conversation usually goes further when it's specific. Bring your list of files with their due dates and status, your record of hours and a note of what's holding up the stuck files. Then ask what should come first, what can move to a later program date and who could review or take on some of the work. Our guide to time management at work has more on preparing for that conversation.

If that doesn't help, you can take it to a partner, HR or your health and safety representative. If you believe the risk still isn't being managed, you can contact the work health and safety regulator in your state or territory, which Safe Work Australia lists on its website.

In the meantime, look after yourself where you can. If your practice has an employee assistance program, HR can tell you how to use it. If stress is affecting your ability to work, you can use paid sick leave, as our article on stress leave explains. Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) and Lifeline (13 11 14) are there if you'd like to talk to someone outside work.

If it's the same every year

One hard October doesn't mean you're in the wrong job. But if the same pattern repeats every year, the hours never come back down, or the practice can't give you the supervision the Code requires, it's reasonable to look at other options. If your health has already been affected, our guide to resigning due to health or stress explains how to go about it. Some accountants move into a commercial finance role, where deadlines follow the employer's own reporting calendar rather than a client lodgment program. Our guide to leaving the Big 4 covers what that kind of move involves, and the accountant career page has pay and job outlook figures.