Australia’s largest professional services
organisation has signed a memorandum of understanding with the tax
academy of Singapore. The agreement will allow CPA Australia
students to study specialised units on Singaporean tax.
This is the first time an
international accounting body has offered a localised taxation
component from another jurisdiction as part of its qualification,
CPA Australia said. To date the organisation has only taught
Australian taxation.
The Singaporean tax component will be
available to all CPA Australia members and students. It will be
offered as part of the professional qualification and as continuing
professional development.
CPA Australia executive general manager of
international development Paul Wappett said the agreement reflects
the increasingly international nature of the organisation.
“We are a consciously global organisation now,
whereas many years in the past we might have been an accidentally
global organisation,” he explained.
Wappett said CPA Australia recognises that
while areas such as accounting and auditing standards, and
management accounting, are converging around the world, there are
still local differences in company law and taxation.
“[The Singaporean tax programme reflects] the
recognition that not all of our members will want to live and work
in Australia, so we need to equip them and equip the employers who
employ them and the regulators that regulate them, with local
knowledge where that is appropriate,” he said.
CPA Australia hopes to roll out similar
programmes for tax regimes in jurisdictions including Hong Kong and
Malaysia.
MEMBERSHIP: CPA AUSTRALIA
Total members:
77,885*
Total student
members: 68,532
Total overseas
members: 29,424
Total overseas
students: 17,009
Members in
Singapore: 5,617
Students in
Singapore: 2,900
* Total member figure does not include
associate/student members. Source: The Accountant
