Our investigation into the misconduct of a registered tax agent in 2022 resulted in our Board Conduct Committee (BCC) imposing administrative sanctions. 

Following an appeal of the decision to the Administrative Appeal Tribunal (AAT), the AAT imposed sanctions that included a written caution and an order requiring the tax agent to undertake and complete courses of education in the Tax Agent Services Act 2009, including the Code of Professional Conduct (Code) and practice management.

We issued the orders and notified the agent that they had been given 12 months to complete and provide evidence of completion of the courses. The agent failed to comply with the order, and in early 2024, the Board commenced another investigation which revealed additional breaches of the Code.

We found the agent breached Code items 2, 8, 13 and 14, by failing to:

• comply with taxation laws in the conduct of their personal tax obligations by not responding to a notice issued by the Board
• provide evidence that they have met the required number of continuing professional education hours to maintain the relevant knowledge and skills relevant to providing tax agent services
• maintain professional indemnity (PI) insurance that meets our requirements since the expiry of their previous policy in November 2022
• comply with an order and respond to our requests to provide information in a timely, responsible and reasonable manner on numerous occasions.

Based on a combination of these findings; the agent’s repeated failure to respond to our enquiries, their continuous lack of cooperation, their failure to maintain appropriate PI insurance, and their prior misconduct, we found the agent did not satisfy the registration requirements as they were no longer a fit and proper person. They were also found not to satisfy the registration requirements to maintain PI insurance. As a result, the BCC terminated their registration and imposed a 2-year ban from reapplying.