INTHEBLACK May 2026 - Magazine - Page 35
Accounting
for impact
INTHEBLACK, Accounting for impact: Annette Morgan FCPA
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them on the outside when we should be
helping when they are inside?’” says Morgan.
“If we can clean up their tax situation while
they are in prison, they can potentially make
better choices when out of prison because
they may have some money or at least their
tax affairs will be sorted out.”
Today, Curtin Tax Clinic works with
17 prisons across Western Australia. Morgan
reports that its prison program has lodged
more than 1900 tax returns for individuals
and multiple returns for small businesses.
Its work has resulted in more than A$720,000
in tax refunds, as well as penalty remissions,
she says. The Clinic also runs financial literacy
workshops at Bandyup Women’s Prison in
east Perth, where there is a waitlist of women
wanting to join the program.
“This work made me realise that those who
are incarcerated do not have the same access
to the things that we take for granted,” says
Morgan. “But your financial and taxation
commitments do not necessarily stop.
Think of things like child support — you may
have been earning A$100,000 a year before
you go to prison, and that is the amount that
your child support payments are based on.
But if you are incarcerated for seven years
and earning no income, you are incurring
debts based on incorrect information.”
VOICE FOR CHANGE
The work of Curtin Tax Clinic has been
recognised through a Universities Australia
Shaping Australia Award in the Community
Champion category, as well as a
Western Australian Attorney General’s
Community Service Law Award.
“It is amazing to see how much we have
grown and the impact that we have had,
but there is more to be done,” says Morgan.
“Whenever we finish a project, whether it
is with prisons, with Indigenous communities
or the homeless, we write a report that
outlines the issues we have seen and our
recommendations for change. It is not about
taking swipes at the government, but
about identifying ways to improve, and we
are finding that a lot of government
organisations are now asking for our insights
and our opinions.
“From one little pro bono tax clinic,
we now have the ability to feed into tax
policy and government decision-making
based on the experience of the taxpayers
we serve.” ■
READ
an article on
BEPS 2.0 and
the Trump effect
LISTEN
to a podcast
episode on
geopolitics and
global tax reform
intheblack.cpaaustralia.com.au 35
