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There is an urgent need for entertaining and engaging education within the tax learning and development space, the founder of Tax Nuggets Academy has said.
‘Boring’ tax education demands entertainment makeover, says tax expert
01 May 2025
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8 minute read
The tax education space is lacking in informative yet entertaining resources and tools that enable accountants to upskill in an enjoyable and effective manner.
Joyce Ong, founder of Tax Nuggets Academy, said her business mission was to break the ‘boring’ stereotype when it came to delivering tax and financial education.
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“At Tax Nuggets Academy, we’re an online learning platform for accountants and the problem that we’re solving is, to put it quite bluntly, is that financial education sucks,” Ong said.
“There are some real hidden gems out there, but generally it’s quite inaccessible, it’s very expensive, it’s hard to get to, it’s really dry and theoretically doesn’t help without actual day-to-day jobs. And that’s the problem we are seeking to solve.”
Ong added that while Tax Nuggets Academy was currently solely focused on tax education, the long-term goal for the small business was to extend to the whole financial industry.
Ong said frequent changes in legislation, the uncertain political landscape, and landmark Tax Office cases such as Bendel were solid reasons as to why accountants needed to consistently upskill their tax knowledge and awareness.
Among updates to the Bendel case and the looming federal election and tax policies, Ong said a Tax Nuggets online education event in March received the largest turnout recorded, underlining the cruciality of tax knowledge.
“We had almost 4000 listeners attend our live events, and that’s because of how busy the industry is and how much people need to keep up to date with changes,” she said.
“Bendel, for instance, we had almost 1000 people turn up to that webinar alone, and then two weeks later, that was followed by the federal budget. So, there are lots of things happening within the accounting industry, but that’s not new. I think that’s just part of being an accountant, fortunately or unfortunately.”
Accountants also needed to ensure they were up to date with their tax knowledge and development based on the complexity of Australia’s tax system.
“I really think that tax reform is never going to happen in my lifetime. I don’t think any of the political parties are brave enough to fix the state we’re currently in, which is a whole Frankenstein of legislation that’s held together by blue tack and sticky tape, unfortunately,” Ong said.
“I guess the key message for accountants out there is you’re always going to have a job because our tax system is so bloody complicated. That’s the only silver lining for all accountants out there.”
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