Explainer
What is a tax health check? (and what a good one covers)
A tax health check is a structured review of a client's current tax position that surfaces both risks and opportunities — before anything is lodged. A good one reads the client's numbers, checks them against current ATO rates and thresholds, and flags the strategies worth a conversation. Done with AI, it takes minutes instead of hours; the practitioner still reviews and signs off.
What a tax health check is
Think of it as a diagnostic. Rather than waiting until lodgement to see where a client stands, a tax health check gives you a structured read now: how their income, deductions, entities and obligations line up, where they might be leaving money on the table, and where there is compliance risk.
It is an advisory tool, not a return. It informs the conversation you have with the client — it does not replace lodgement or personal tax advice.
What a good one covers
A thorough health check looks across the whole picture, not just one number:
- The client's current position against current-year ATO rates and thresholds.
- Opportunities — strategies that actually apply to this client, grounded in ATO sources.
- Risks — thresholds they are close to crossing, obligations they may be missing.
- A clear, client-ready summary of what to do next.
Where AI helps (and where the human stays)
AI does the heavy lifting: reading the numbers, matching strategies, estimating impact, and drafting the summary — in minutes. What it does not do is take on your professional responsibility. The registered practitioner reviews the output, applies judgement, and signs off before it reaches the client. The AI-assisted result is general information to be verified, not personal tax advice.
Why firms run them
A health check turns a compliance relationship into an advisory one. It gives the client a reason to talk to you beyond lodgement, and it surfaces the higher-value work — planning, structuring, strategy — that clients happily pay for. Making it fast enough to run for every client is what turns it from an occasional exercise into a repeatable service.
Authoritative sources
This article is general information for registered practitioners, not personal tax advice. Advisory Stack is a technology platform used by registered tax agents; the registered practitioner remains the adviser of record and is responsible for verifying any output before relying on it.
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See it in your practice
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