My partner is a full member of ICB (MICB) by examination for some years now. We are planning to emigrate to Western Australia so the among the first things my partner tried to ascertain is whether her MICB status is recognised in Australia. Following some contact with the Australian ICB she was told, to our amazement, that her UK MICB would not be recognised by the Australian ICB, and if she wishes so she can start again her Australian ICB career path from scratch!!! She was even refered to the Austalian Tax Practitioners Board to check if her UK ICB qualifications would be recognised!! (Now how do they expect some other body to recognise them if ICB itself do not recognise their own lot?). The ICB claims to be the "biggest body for professional bookkkeepers in the world dedicated to promoting the bookkeeping profession". Realy? How do they achieve this by not doing as they preach. I can only think of three valid reasons for this:
1) Either ICB UK is considered a sub standard body by the Australian ICB
2) Perhaps ICB Australia has better standards than UK ICB
3) Nothing to do with standards or practices but it's another money making institution to the detriment of the profession they claim to represent.
I am not an Bookkeeper myself, but surely the language is the same, the UK and Australian bookkeeping practices and methods must be very similar if not identical. Granted, bookkeeping software can differ but they all do anyway, fiscal policies and tax matters can vary from country to country, but yet again, they change every year in every country. We would expect some additional training course to accommodate for this, such as the Certificate IV in bookkeeping which is a prerequisitive for someone to deal with tax matters (BAS agent) but not to be treated as complete novices by an institution that is sustained by our own membership fees.
-- Edited by survival1st on Tuesday 11th of June 2013 02:50:37 PM
Don't worry about not being a bookkeeper. Half of the people here are accountants, plus we have business owners and those just thinking about a career move.
I think that there are various ICB's all over the world with their acronym being the only thing that they share in common. South Africa being a good example of that.
Australia though as you rightly point out has close links to the UK ICB so for them to basically turn around and tell you that ICB UK is a worthless qualification does seem more than a little rough and maybe something that James might pick up and look iinto.
You could of course have a look at what qualifications that ICB australia do recognise where you can get UK exemptions from membership in order to transfer over or, maybe even drop ICB and go with another body that has presence in Australia such as AAT, IAB, IFA, etc. (do your own checks before taking assuming any advice offerted here is valid but my understanding is that the I in IAB does not stand for international for no reason!),
I would imagine that you are pretty angry at the moment as I would be in the same scenario.
As I say, once you are not fuming at the situation, have a chat with ICB UK (James if you can get him), if you get nowhere take a serious look at the alternatives such as a straight switch over the IAB or / and IFA but get confirmation first that the qualification is recognised down under.
kindest regards,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Bookkeeping does vary quite a bit between countries. Although most of the commonwealth countries follow a similar system to the UK, Australia over the last few years has fundamentally changed its systems.
Their balance sheets, tax, legal systems, who you report to/when and how, jargon etc. is all very different. The payroll over there is completely different.
I don't think they would have said your partner's qualifications are un-recognised, we do get quite a few members who change between countries. They even use the same database so would have been able to see the qualifications and history of their membership.
However, because of the above your partner would need to study the differences. This can be done by text book rather than attending college.
Oddly Australia in some sense is further from the UK system than most non Commonwealth/ex-empire countries.
ICB Global who I work for is in 103 countries. Some of these countries have their own ICB (registered as an institute in that country) like the UK, Australia and 9 others.
Each ICB covers the same sort/level of work, what ICB Global refers to as bookkeeping. This work does vary by country, mostly just in terminology or layout etc. but in some cases even language. Some countries have specific local knowledge added, for example Australia has the BAS Agent (Business Activity Statement Agent) which is a very important part of accountancy there that does not exist here.
Because of the local specific knowledge in some countries it may be required that a bookkeeper learns about it, and in most cases takes a test, before they can join the local ICB.
ICB Global looks after and governs the local ICBs and makes sure they all keep the standards and stick within bookkeeping.
ICB South Africa is not part of ICB Global and is an individual body, however, we do get quite a few South Africans coming to the UK getting confused so we help them transfer their knowledge. South Africa bookkeeping is actually very similar to the UK and so this is quite easy.
I have now had a response from our Australian office, they received two enquiries in the last few days, 1 by phone and 1 by email which I have seen their response.
Pretty standard as they get quite a few from the UK members, more than I had thought.
As per my reasons stated in my other post membership is not simply transferred, however, you would join them as an Affiliate Member.
You then can study the differences between the systems, GST, BAS, PAYG (instead of PAYE) and the many others.
Take assignments on Australian bookkeeping and, should you pass, take up membership at the appropriate level.
I cannot see any mention of the Australia Tax Practitioners Board in the email, however, if it was over the phone it might have been regarding becoming a tax agent. You need to have a very specific qualification on Australian company reporting, so no overseas qualification would be applicable.
Ian I think either contact them again, or call the UK office on 0845 060 2345, you can ask to speak to me.
