The national rules, briefly. Tax and BAS agents register with the Tax Practitioners Board wherever they work, so a practice in Hamilton or Charlestown follows the same rules as one in Sydney. Our Sydney accountants page explains the registered tax practitioner symbol and the APES 110 standard on honest marketing, and our Perth page covers the client information every registered practitioner has had to provide since July 2025. For the website, that comes down to your registration details, a link to the TPB Register, and that client information published where people can find it.
Five councils and the valley beyond. The NSW Government's Greater Newcastle plan covers five council areas: Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Port Stephens and Cessnock. Further up the valley are Singleton, Muswellbrook and the Upper Hunter Shire, whose main town is Scone. People search for an accountant by the town they live in, so name your office suburb, the towns you visit and the council areas most of your clients come from, rather than claiming the whole Hunter.
Defence clients. RAAF Base Williamtown, in Port Stephens about 30 kilometres north of Newcastle, houses most of the Air Force's F-35A fighters as well as its E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft. The ATO's guide for Australian Defence Force members notes that some allowances, such as travel and overtime meal allowances, can be left off a member's income statement and only go in the return if a deduction is claimed against them, and that only the work-related part of compulsory mess subscriptions is deductible. A family arriving on a posting may know nobody locally to ask for a recommendation, so a section that says you work with ADF members, and describes in your own words what you help them with, gives them a reason to call.
Mines, studs and vineyards. The ATO publishes a separate income and deductions guide for mining site employees, a group Upper Hunter practices know well. Upper Hunter Shire Council describes Scone as renowned for its thoroughbred horse industry, with most of its rural land used for grazing, dairy farming, horse studs and general farming, while the Lower Hunter's vineyards centre on Pokolbin. If primary producers are a real part of your work, name the regions you travel to and the services they use, such as income averaging, farm management deposits or wine equalisation tax. For employers, NSW payroll tax for 2026-27 is 5.45% of wages above a $1,200,000 threshold, and the threshold is reduced in proportion when part of an employer's wages are paid in another state.
Working with us. We're an Adelaide team at Ste 3/110 Hutt St and work with Hunter practices by phone and email; Adelaide runs half an hour behind Newcastle all year. Our Hunter client is Phoenix Housekeeping, a cleaning business working across Lake Macquarie and Cessnock as well as the Central Coast. It isn't an accounting firm, but its site shows how a business covering several council areas can give each one its own page.