AML/CTF compliance for Australian tax agents, BAS agents and accounting practices — clear, defensible and ready for review. Decide which engagements are designated services, complete customer due diligence, manage AUSTRAC reporting dates and keep the evidence behind every decision on the client file.
Built for Tranche 2
Tax & accounting practices
AUSTRAC timeline
Enrol by 29 July 2026
Practice records
Stored in Sydney, Australia
Cassandra AML assists compliance work. It is not legal advice and is not AUSTRAC-endorsed or approved software. Routine tax returns and BAS lodgement are generally not designated services on their own — company and trust formation, holding or managing client money, business or real-estate transactions and registered-office services more often bring a practice into scope. Your practice remains responsible for its AML/CTF obligations.
Why this matters now
From 1 July 2026, practices that provide designated services carry obligations that used to sit mainly with banks and other reporting entities: knowing when you are in scope, knowing your customer, reporting suspicious matters and threshold transactions, and maintaining a documented AML/CTF program.
Tax returns and BAS lodgement are generally not designated services on their own. Company and trust work, client money, business or real-estate transactions and registered-office services often are. Decide case by case and keep the reasoning on the client file.
Professional-service AML/CTF obligations commenced on 1 July 2026. Practices already providing designated services must enrol with AUSTRAC by 29 July 2026 and appoint and notify an AML/CTF compliance officer.
When a reviewer, insurer or senior partner asks why a client was onboarded a certain way, you need more than a ticked box. You need the decision, the evidence, the approval and the dates — connected to that client.
Every module is written for tax-practice work: designated services, CDD, reporting, program governance and ongoing client monitoring — connected, not bolted on.
Answer practical questions about the work you will perform and record a covered / not covered / needs review outcome — with the rule references that support the decision kept on the client file.
Capture identity, beneficial ownership, screening outcomes, ML/TF risk and the reason for approval in one guided client workflow. Manual verification is fully supported so you can start without buying external checks.
Prepare Suspicious Matter and Threshold Transaction records with statutory due dates, restricted staff access, submission-ready AUSTRAC Online exports and a clear place to record lodgement and receipt.
Build and version your AML/CTF program, complete a tax-practice risk assessment, assign staff training and keep dual-control approvals so governance is not stuck in shared drives.
Schedule rescreens, document expiry reviews and periodic CDD by client risk so follow-up work surfaces before a deadline — not after a complaint or a review letter.
Issue short-lived client requests for identity documents, trust deeds or ASIC extracts. Clients upload once; your practice reviews, accepts or returns items with reasons — all logged.
Every scope decision keeps its reasoning, the rules applied at the time and any uncertainty flags — so when a file is reopened months later, you can explain exactly why the practice acted the way it did.
A tamper-evident activity log records who did what and when across scope decisions, CDD, reporting and program changes — perfect for reviewers, PI insurers and internal audit.
Suspicious-matter reporting is limited to authorised staff, with MFA sign-in and per-practice record isolation so sensitive work is never visible to the wrong seat.
SMR and TTR due dates use Australian business-day calendars, including public holidays, so reporting windows are not left to a sticky note or a generic calendar app.
Practice compliance records and uploaded evidence files are stored in Sydney, Australia, with application processing running in Australia.
Live provider checks, controlled test checks and not-connected capabilities are always labelled clearly — a test result is never shown as a live customer verification.
Banks have compliance teams. Most tax and accounting practices do not. Cassandra AML is shaped around sole practitioners, small firms and multi-partner offices that need clear AML/CTF steps without enterprise jargon.
Run designated-service decisions, CDD and reporting alongside the engagements you already manage for clients.
Separate routine BAS and lodgement work from specific services that can bring an AML/CTF obligation into play.
Give owners, compliance officers and client staff one shared workspace with clear roles, approvals and full activity history.
Support multiple practices with consistent scope reasoning, program structure and evidence the practice can own and defend.
Stand up your first AML/CTF controls without enterprise jargon — guided workflows shaped around a one-person practice.
Coordinate compliance officers, principals and client-facing staff with dual-control approvals and role-based access.
How the work runs
Cassandra AML organises AML/CTF work in the same order a tax practice already thinks about clients: service, client, checks, then ongoing controls.
01
Before opening a compliance file, decide whether the engagement is a designated service and keep that decision with the client.
02
Record the legal entity, jurisdiction, ABN where relevant and the staff member responsible for the relationship.
03
Collect identity and ownership evidence, record screening and risk, and approve only when the file supports the decision.
04
Track reporting dates, program approvals, staff training and monitoring so the practice stays organised after onboarding.
Built and operated by Cassandra Research Pty Ltd — an Australian-registered software company (ABN 70 659 258 367) headquartered at 888 Collins Street, Docklands, Melbourne VIC 3008.
First-hand experience building production software for Australian AML/CTF compliance for tax and accounting practices under Tranche 2, with workflows shaped by practitioners who run real Australian practices every day.
Product logic reviewed against current Australian standards and primary sources, including Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), AUSTRAC rules and guidance, Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) standards.
Cassandra Research is a verifiable Australian entity (ABN 70 659 258 367), with public editorial standards, a corrections policy and a named author for every analysis.
Zero-log architecture, TLS 1.3 in transit and AES-256 at rest. Role-based access, immutable audit trails and tenant isolation are built-in — not bolted on.
5.0 average from verified Australian professional users — read reviews on our About page.