A company failed to comply with the taxation laws in the conduct of their personal affairs when they neglected to pay (or make arrangements to pay) debts of almost $270,000. The debts arose from GST and superannuation guarantee charge assessments following an Australian Taxation Office (ATO) audit.

The Board Conduct Committee (BCC) were concerned about the size of the outstanding debt, the fact that the company did not enter into a payment arrangement with the ATO to repay the debt and the large client base the company had – in excess of 4,000 clients.

Breaches of Code of Professional Conduct items 1 and 2 were found against the company and the BCC terminated its tax agent registration.