The Queensland Law Society has recently released updated guidelines for EFT payments from the trust account.
The updated guidelines can be found on the Society’s website and through the following link: https://www.qls.com.au/Practising-law-in-Qld/Trust-accounts/EFT-Guidelines
The guidelines have been simplified and are designed to operate in a paperless environment. One guideline covers all types of permissible electronic payments.
If your law practice was approved in the past to make EFT payments from the trust account, that same approval now approves the law practice for all types of electronic payments including EFT, Pexa, Sympli, QRO and Titles Office direct debits.
The approval covers all trust accounts and controlled money accounts in existence and any new trust accounts opened by the law practice. All previous guidelines have been repealed and the new guidelines will apply retrospectively.
Payments such as Bpay, PayID and payments using a New Payments Platform are still prohibited payment types. Legislation requires a BSB and account number to be entered into the trust accounting records, and these details are not provided with these payment types. The Society is looking to amend the legislation to make these payment types possible in the future.
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