Complaints Policy Template for Tax Practices

Set Your Complaint Contact

This complaints policy template turns your practice’s contacts and chosen handling steps into a client-facing policy and an internal procedure. Enter a reachable contact, the receiving role and an investigator. Use practice contact details, without an individual client’s information or complaint allegations.

Give clients a separate contact when a complaint concerns the usual recipient or that route is unavailable. Explain how someone can ask for a telephone discussion, interpreter or support person through the alternative arrangements field.

Build the Policy and Procedure

Choose the business-day targets your practice can meet. The acknowledgement and response periods both run from receiving the complaint. The review period runs from receiving the review request. These are your service commitments. The generator does not supply a universal legal response deadline.

Select Load example for fictional procedures with a two-business-day acknowledgement target, a 15-business-day response target and a 10-business-day review target. Prepare document includes those same periods in both sections. Replace the example contacts and record arrangements before using it.

Registered tax practitioners have a separate duty to tell current and prospective clients how to complain, including through the TPB. Give this information in writing at engagement or re-engagement, or upon a relevant request. The TPB’s client-information guidance covers prominent presentation and the other information clients need. A generated policy alone does not establish that those obligations are met.

Investigate and Record a Complaint

Assign acknowledgement to the receiving role and fact gathering to an uninvolved investigator. The procedure records the concern, relevant engagement terms, supporting material and the outcome sought. Staff affected by the complaint have an opportunity to respond before the practice records its findings and reasons.

Name the record owner and restricted file location. Describe which staff and authorised advisers can see the record and who approves disclosure. Keep the original response and any review together. Assess applicable retention obligations before deleting records, without exposing another client’s information.

If an investigator has a conflict, use the alternative contact to appoint someone without involvement. Record the replacement and explain the arrangement to the client. When a target cannot be met, explain the delay and provide the next response time.

Give Clients the Escalation Route

Enter an internal review contact who can reconsider the handling and findings. A client can use an appropriate external route without completing that review first. The generated policy includes the external destinations you enter, so include the TPB complaint form for relevant tax agent or BAS services.

The TPB’s complaints guidance explains which conduct it can consider. Lodge a written complaint through the TPB complaint form. The TPB encourages clients to raise concerns with their practitioner first where appropriate.

The TPB cannot award compensation. Fee-only disputes generally belong with the relevant state or territory Consumer Affairs or Fair Trading body. Professional association or privacy routes depend on the practitioner and issue. Include only destinations that apply to your practice.

Keep the Policy Usable

Prepare document builds both sections from your entered facts. Edit the text locally, then copy it or download an editable plain-text file for your usual document editor and printing. Changing an input clears the prepared text so an earlier contact or period cannot remain in the download.

Review the draft before approval, complete its effective-date and review fields and publish the client-facing route where clients can find it. Check the document whenever staff responsibilities or external routes change. Clear entries removes every field and the generated document. Leaving the page clears them too.

A client’s complaint and a change of accountant need separate records. An ethical clearance letter handles the information request when a client appoints another accountant.