Accountant skills assessment in Australia: why you get to choose your assessing body, and why that choice matters

Three bodies, one applicant's choice

CPA Australia, the IPA and Chartered Accountants ANZ are separate, competing professional membership organisations. All three are authorised to run the migration skills assessment for the same occupation codes, and an applicant picks which one to use. Their assessments are not interchangeable: a negative outcome from one body is a real reason applicants consider a different one, but a positive outcome from one does not carry across to another, and — as CPA states plainly — the body that runs your qualification assessment must also run your skilled employment assessment. Starting with one and finishing with another is not an option.

This matters in practice. One Whirlpool poster describes applying to CPA Australia with a foreign accounting degree and having most of it rejected: "they would not recognize the majority of my degree subjects apart from accounting fundamentals and economics." A reply to that thread points straight at the alternative most people reach for: "just join IPA then you can just do an advanced diploma at TAFE in accounting." Nobody in that thread claims IPA is easier — only that the three-body choice is treated as a live, consequential decision by the people actually going through it.

The mandatory step: a qualification assessment against a competency table

CPA's qualification assessment checks two things: whether your degree is comparable to at least an Australian bachelor's degree, and whether your transcript covers a specific set of mandatory competency areas that differ by occupation code. There is no lower diploma-level tier — the bachelor-equivalent bar applies across the board.

The competency table is the mechanical detail that actually separates the codes in this family. Accountant (General), Management Accountant, Corporate Treasurer and Finance Manager share an identical set of seven mandatory areas: Accounting Systems and Processes, Business Law, Economics, Financial Accounting and Reporting, Finance and Financial Management, Management Accounting, and Quantitative Methods. Taxation Accountant requires the same seven plus one more — Australian Taxation Law, and CPA specifies the study has to cover Australian content specifically. External Auditor requires the same seven plus Audit and Assurance instead.

CPA runs its own bridging product, the CPA Program Foundation Exams, for applicants whose transcript is missing one of the shared areas. It is a genuinely useful shortcut where it applies — but its own competency-to-exam mapping table lists both extra areas as unavailable through that route. A gap in Australian Taxation Law or Audit and Assurance needs a real accredited university or college subject, not a self-paced exam. That is a materially bigger undertaking, and it is the single biggest reason to nominate the code that matches your actual coursework rather than the job title you want in Australia.

General, Management or Taxation Accountant: what actually separates them

The three headline codes exist because the underlying work is different, not because one title outranks another. ANZSCO's own task descriptions draw the line: Accountant (General) covers compliance-based financial reporting, auditing, insolvency and accounting information systems. Management Accountant covers performance-based reporting, asset valuation, budgetary systems, cost management, pricing and forecasting — CPA's alternative title for it is cost accountant. Taxation Accountant covers analysing and advising on taxation issues, preparing returns and handling disputes with tax authorities.

Accountant (General) and Management Accountant sit on the identical seven-area competency table, so choosing between them is really a question of which duties your evidence actually supports, not a difference in assessment difficulty. Taxation Accountant is the one that carries the extra, harder-to-bridge Australian Taxation Law requirement described above. Nominating Taxation Accountant because it sounds closer to your job title, when your transcript never covered Australian tax content, is the single most avoidable way this family goes wrong.

The optional add-on: turning work experience into points

CPA's skilled employment assessment is a second, separately paid product. It cannot be taken on its own — a negative qualification outcome stops it before it starts — and CPA is explicit that pre-qualification work is worthless to it: only employment gained after your degree was awarded counts.

The criteria, drawn from CPA's own published page: the work must have occurred within the ten years before the assessment application date, been paid and continuous at a minimum of twenty hours a week, and add up to at least one year of accumulated employment counted in blocks of at least three months per role. Concurrent roles cannot be stacked — CPA will not recognise more than twelve months of experience inside any twelve-month calendar window, so two jobs held at once do not double your claimable time. The employment also has to be closely related to your nominated occupation; volunteering, internships and the Accounting Professional Year program specifically do not count.

Evidence has a strict form. Employer testimonials need official letterhead with full business contact details, a signature from someone senior to you — CPA states colleague-level references are not acceptable — and dated start and end periods for every role, with duties described in the employer's own words rather than copied from an ANZSCO or ABS occupation definition, which CPA says it will not accept. CVs and résumés are explicitly not accepted as evidence at all. Self-employed applicants substitute business registration and tax records plus client references for the employer testimonial.

CPA itself does not award or advise on points — its outcome letter is what Home Affairs reads for the skilled employment component of a points-tested application.

English requirements, and the test type that gets refused outright

CPA accepts IELTS Academic, PTE Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced, TOEFL iBT, the Michigan English Test, LanguageCert Academic and CELPIP General, each against its own score bands, and results are valid for three years from the test date (the Accounting Professional Year Program certificate is the one exception, with no expiry). Only the academic version of IELTS is accepted — the General Training module is not.

One rule catches people who assume any pass qualifies: CPA refuses home-proctored or online-only test sittings categorically, regardless of score. An applicant who sat an at-home IELTS or TOEFL session — common during periods when test centres were closed — needs to re-sit at a physical centre; the result itself is not in question, the delivery method is.

Passport holders from Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States are exempt from the English requirement outright, but CPA states this exemption only applies to applications submitted after 7 May 2026 — an application lodged earlier under the prior policy may not have carried it.

What a positive outcome does and doesn't get you

A CPA assessment outcome — qualification, skilled employment, or both — is valid for three years, and Home Affairs honours that same window. Within it, you can request an update if your circumstances change (new study, a new English test, new employment) or lodge a review, but a review only re-examines the documents you originally submitted — no new evidence — and has to be lodged within twelve months of the outcome date. Submitting new material turns the request into a paid update application instead.

What it is not: CPA/CAANZ/IPA membership, a professional licence, or automatic authorisation to perform every accounting activity in Australia. ANZSCO flags this directly for every code in this family — registration or licensing may be required for certain services, most concretely auditing. Two overlays are worth knowing about specifically. Anyone doing statutory external audit work needs separate registration as a Registered Company Auditor with ASIC, which requires demonstrating appropriate qualifications, capability and fitness independently of any migration assessment. Anyone planning to charge a fee for preparing or lodging someone else's tax return needs separate registration with the Tax Practitioners Board — its site could not be reached from this research environment, so no TPB-specific criteria are stated here as verified; treat this as a flag to confirm directly with the TPB, not as a described process.

What we could not verify

This page documents CPA Australia's published criteria because its site could be fetched and quoted directly. Chartered Accountants ANZ's site returned an access error on every attempt from this research environment, so nothing CAANZ-specific — its own competency requirements, fees, or whether its process differs from CPA's — is stated here as fact. The IPA's site answered normally, but its assessment pages render their entire content through client-side script rather than in the page itself, which meant nothing on those pages could be mechanically read and quoted either. Anywhere this page describes "the three bodies" doing something, it is describing CPA's own published rule about how the system works generally (for example, that qualification and employment assessments must be done by the same body) rather than confirming IPA or CAANZ separately state the identical rule. If you're weighing IPA or CAANZ specifically, confirm current criteria on their own sites or by contacting them directly rather than assuming CPA's rules apply unchanged.

Do I have to use CPA Australia, or can I choose IPA or CAANZ instead?

You choose. CPA Australia, the IPA and Chartered Accountants ANZ are three separate bodies, all independently authorised to assess Accountant (General), Management Accountant, Taxation Accountant and External Auditor for migration purposes. Their outcomes are not automatically transferable to each other, and whichever body does your qualification assessment also has to do your skilled employment assessment — you can't split the two stages between bodies.

What's the actual difference between Accountant (General) and Management Accountant?

The work, not the difficulty. Both sit on CPA's identical seven-area competency table, so the assessment bar is the same. ANZSCO describes Accountant (General) as compliance-based reporting, auditing and accounting information systems, and Management Accountant as performance-based reporting, budgeting, cost management and forecasting — CPA's alternative title for it is cost accountant. Which one fits depends on what your transcript and employment evidence actually show, not on which sounds more senior.

Why does Taxation Accountant need more than the other two codes?

CPA's competency table adds one extra mandatory area for Taxation Accountant on top of the seven shared with Accountant (General) and Management Accountant: Australian Taxation Law, and the study specifically has to cover Australian content. If your degree is otherwise a strong match but never covered Australian tax law, CPA's own Foundation Exam bridge — the shortcut for a missing competency area — explicitly does not cover this one, so the gap needs a genuine accredited subject rather than a quick top-up exam.

Can my pre-degree work experience count toward the skilled employment assessment?

No. CPA states it will only consider employment gained after your qualifying degree was awarded. Employment also has to fall within the ten years before your application date, be paid and continuous at twenty or more hours a week, and add up to at least one year in blocks of three months or more per role. Concurrent jobs held at the same time don't stack — CPA caps recognised experience at twelve months inside any twelve-month window.

Can I use a CV or résumé as evidence for the skilled employment assessment?

No — CPA states directly that it does not accept CVs or résumés as employment evidence. It wants an employer testimonial on official letterhead, signed by someone senior to you (a colleague-level signatory is not accepted), naming full business contact details and dated start and end periods, with duties written in the employer's own words rather than copied from a standard occupation description, plus a minimum of three payslips per claimed role.

I sat an at-home IELTS or TOEFL test. Does that count?

Not for CPA. It refuses home-proctored or fully online test sittings outright, regardless of the score achieved — this is a rule about how the test was delivered, not about performance. A test sat at a physical, in-person centre is required. Results from an accepted sitting stay valid for three years.

Does a positive assessment let me start practising as an accountant in Australia?

It's a migration document, not a licence or a professional membership. ANZSCO notes that registration or licensing may be required for certain services — auditing being the clearest example. Signing off statutory company audits needs separate ASIC Registered Company Auditor registration, and charging a fee to prepare or lodge someone else's tax return needs separate Tax Practitioners Board registration. Neither is granted by the migration skills assessment itself.

How long is a CPA assessment outcome valid, and can I update it?

Three years from the outcome date, and Home Affairs honours that same window. Within it you can request a paid update if something has changed (new study, a new English result, new employment) or lodge a review within twelve months of the outcome date — but a review only re-examines your original documents, with no new evidence accepted. Submitting new material converts the request into an update application instead.