The Code of Professional Conduct (Code) sets out principles under five separate categories.

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Honesty and integrity

  1. You must act honestly and with integrity.
  2. You must comply with the taxation laws in the conduct of your personal affairs.

  3. If you:

    • receive money or other property from or on behalf of a client, and
    • hold the money or other property on trust

    you must account to your client for the money or other property.

 

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Independence

  1. You must act lawfully in the best interests of your client.
  2. You must have in place adequate arrangements for the management of conflicts of interest that may arise in relation to the activities that you undertake in the capacity of a registered tax agent.

 

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Confidentiality

  1. Unless you have a legal duty to do so, you must not disclose any information relating to a client’s affairs to a third party without your client’s permission.

 

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Competence

  1. You must ensure that a tax agent service that you provide, or that is provided on your behalf, is provided competently.
  2. You must maintain knowledge and skills relevant to the tax agent services that you provide.
  3. You must take reasonable care in ascertaining a client’s state of affairs, to the extent that ascertaining the state of those affairs is relevant to a statement you are making or a thing you are doing on behalf of a client.
  4. You must take reasonable care to ensure that taxation laws are applied correctly to the circumstances in relation to which you are providing advice to a client.

 

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Other responsibilities

  1. You must not knowingly obstruct the proper administration of the taxation laws.
  2. You must advise your client of the client’s rights and obligations under the taxation laws that are materially related to the tax agent services you provide.
  3. You must maintain the professional indemnity insurance that the Board requires you to maintain.
  4. You must respond to requests and directions from the Board in a timely, responsible and reasonable manner.

From 1 January 2024

  1. You must not employ, or use the services of, an entity to provide tax agent services on your behalf if:
    1. you know, or ought reasonably to know, that the entity is a disqualified entity; and
    2. the Board has not given you approval under section 45-5 to employ or use the services of, the disqualified entity to provide tax agent services on your behalf.
  2. You must not provide tax agent services in connection with an arrangement with an entity that you know, or ought reasonably to know, is a disqualified entity.
  3. You must comply with any obligations determined under section 30-12.

 

New Code obligations

For the purposes of Code item 17, the Minister may determine new Code obligations through a legislative instrument. Any new obligations will be related to your professional or ethical conduct as a registered tax or BAS agent. The obligations may elaborate or supplement any aspect of the Code. 

A new Legislative Instrument (LI), Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024 (Determination) was registered on 2 July 2024 and introduced 8 additional Code obligations under Code item 17. Following stakeholder feedback, the government amended the Determination to provide clarity and certainty to tax practitioners on certain obligations. 

A transitional rule introduced in the Determination delays the commencement of the new obligations to:

  • 1 July 2025 – for tax practitioners with 100 or less employees as at 31 July 2024, including new tax practitioners that register between 1 August 2024 and 30 June 2025; and
  • 1 January 2025 – for any other tax practitioners.

Refer to The Code Determination - Background and context for an overview of the Determination.

These additional obligations relate to:

Honesty and integrity

  1. Upholding and promoting the ethical standards of the tax profession
  2. False or misleading statements

Independence

  1. Conflicts of interest in activities undertaken for government

Confidentiality

  1. Maintaining confidentiality in dealings with government

Competence

  1. Keeping of proper client records
  2. Ensuring tax agent services provided on your behalf are provided competently

Other responsibilities

  1. Quality management systems
  2. Keeping your clients informed.

Recommendations for complying with the Code

To assist you to comply with certain aspects of the Code we have provided guidance material on matters such as:

For a detailed explanation of various Code categories, refer to TPB(EP) 01/2010 Code of Professional Conduct.

For the new obligations under Code item 17, we have released a suite of draft information sheets to help you understand these obligations. Consultation is open on the draft guidance until 21 November 2024. 

Failure to comply with the Code

If you fail to comply with your obligations under the Code, we may impose sanctions. For more information refer to Failing to comply with your obligations.

Last modified: 24 October 2024