From 1 July 2026, accounting firms across Australia – including ours – are becoming officially regulated under the country’s anti-money laundering laws. If that sounds like it only applies to banks, that’s understandable.
Until now, it has.
This post explains what’s changing, why we’ll be in touch with clients over the coming months, and why it’s a good thing.
AML/CTF stands for Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing. It’s a set of laws designed to stop criminals using legitimate businesses – like banks, and now accounting firms – to disguise or move money linked to illegal activity.
In practice, this means regulated businesses have to know who their clients are, understand what their services are being used for, and keep an eye out for anything unusual. Australia has had these rules for banks and casinos since 2006. What’s new is that they’re now being extended to a wider group of professions.
This next phase – often called ‘Tranche 2’ – brings accountants, lawyers, real estate agents, conveyancers and a few other professions into the same regulatory framework banks have worked under for years. The change comes from the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act, and it takes effect on 1 July 2026.
In practice, this means firms like ours now need to:
The reasoning behind including accountants isn’t about suspicion of any particular client or industry – it’s that accounting services can, in rare cases, be misused to move money improperly, so regulators want the same checks applied here as everywhere else in the finance and professional services world. Australia is one of the last countries in our peer group to make this change; the UK and EU already regulate accountants this way.
Over the coming months, you may hear from us to confirm some identification details, or to ask a few questions about the nature of certain services we provide for you – particularly if we’re involved in company or trust structures, or property-related transactions on your behalf.
This isn’t specific to you, and it isn’t a sign of any concern about your affairs. It’s a standard step every accounting firm in Australia is now required to complete for every client, as part of meeting our new obligations. We’ll let you know exactly what we need and why, and we’ll keep the process as simple as possible.
For clients, the day-to-day experience of working with us won’t change much. The main visible difference is that we may ask for identification or some additional information in specific circumstances, and we’ll have a documented process behind the scenes to support that.
Bringing accounting into this regulatory framework is part of a broader, long-planned effort to close gaps that could otherwise be exploited to move money without scrutiny. Being part of that framework is a straightforward compliance step for us, and one we’re well placed to manage.
If you have any questions about what this means for you, get in touch with us directly – we’re happy to talk it through.
