The phone starts ringing at 8 am, a good one hour before Mahesh Kumar Agarwal reaches his office in Delhi’s Netaji Subhash Place. “Clients start calling if they get stuck and need guidance on GST-related matters,” says the 58-year-old chartered accountant. When his other mobile phone and landline also join the chorus, Mahesh turns to his children for assistance. And for good reason. All three of them — Minal, Komal and Aditya — are chartered accountants and well versed in the rules of the new tax.The eldest daughter Minal, 30, conducts GST impact analysis for foreign and large Indian corporations. She also advises them on GST rules and the changes required in their operations. Employees of a north India-based footwear manufacturer have always looked forward to July 1 when their company gave them discount coupons.This year, Minal advised the company to defer the practice because supply without consideration would attract GST. “Those who get lavish Diwali gifts will have to be content with cheaper stuff this year. If the value of the gift exceeds Rs 50,000, it will attract GST,” she says. Her brother Aditya, a freshly minted CA who passed the exam in 2016, conducts training workshops for SMEs. Last week, he was in Amritsar on the invitation of an association of cloth merchants. “Textile traders and manufacturers, who were exempt from tax till now, are completely clueless about GST,” he says.When it comes to GST preparedness, foreign corporations are far ahead of domestic companies. During an overseas trip, Minal was surprised by the sharp and cogent queries raised by the finance honchos of MNCs operating in India. Meanwhile, in India even those who are supposed to know all this are not clear about the basic tenets of the new law. “Many CAs don’t understand that though GST is a destination-based tax , the registration needs to be done only in the state of origin of the product or service,” says Minal.This severe lack of awareness about the new tax means GST-savvy chartered accountants like the Agarwals are in great demand. “My WhatsApp inbox is flooded with queries,” says Aditya. “It feels nice to be in the right place, at the right time.” At the same time, he understands that not all finance professionals will be able to tap into this opportunity. “GST is a new law and subsumes 17 other laws. Only chartered accountants who have developed expertise in this area will be in high demand,” says Aditya.The Agarwals also realise the need to update themselves on the law that is still undergoing changes. “The rules are still evolving and every day there is a new change in the law,” says Minal. It’s particularly challenging for older professionals such as Mahesh who have to forget the tax rules they learnt over the past 30-40 years. “We have to learn, relearn and unlearn a lot. If we don’t keep ourselves updated, the advice to the client will not be accurate or useful,” says Mahesh.Mahesh is delighted that his children have followed his profession, but insists he never forced them to. “Nowadays, nobody can force someone to choose a certain vocation. My children were interested in the profession and made their own choices,” he says. He may have been the inspiration, though. A 2016 research by Facebook shows that children are more likely to follow the professions of their parents and siblings. The study analysed data of 5.6 million people who had mentioned their professions in their profiles.If 80% of the five-member family are chartered accountants, it is hardly surprising that conversations at the dinner table are usually about double entries, debit/credit and balance sheet reconciliation. There are times when Mahesh’s homemaker wife Sunita feels out of place, especially when casual discussions between the four chartered accountants meander into professional territory.“She has got used to it but sometimes feels completely alone at the dinner table,” says Komal, the younger daughter, who completed CA in 2014. “My mother says, ‘You guys are making money but I am the one who is paying a price for it’,” Komal adds with a chuckle.