A tax agent has had their registration terminated after the Board Conduct Committee (BCC) found they had breached multiple items of the Code of Professional Conduct (Code) and were no longer a fit and proper person to be registered. Our investigations revealed the agent failed to act with honesty and integrity, take reasonable care and comply with tax laws in the conduct of their personal affairs.

It was found the tax agent breached Code item 1 by making fraudulent claims to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), and later supplied misleading documents in an audit, when they attempted to gain access to the Cash Flow Boost (CFB) and JobKeeper payments through companies they controlled.

The tax agent also breached Code items 1 and 9 when it was determined by the ATO in an audit of CFB clients that the tax agent knowingly prepared and lodged business activity statements (BAS) for 3 clients to gain access to the CFB when they should have known those clients were not eligible.

The tax agent breached Code item 2 when they failed to lodge 2 income tax returns and 3 BAS, and did not make arrangements with the ATO to pay their excessive tax debts.

In addition, the tax agent failed to report to us the outcome of a professional association disciplinary hearing which found they failed to act in the best interests of their client. Consequently, we also found the tax agent was no longer a fit and proper person to be registered.

Outcome

As the BCC found the tax agent was no longer a fit and proper person, it terminated their tax agent registration. In consideration of the circumstances of the agent’s behaviour we imposed a 5-year ban on reapplying for registration.

This case highlights our work to protect consumers of tax practitioner services and ensures the tax profession is worthy of our community’s trust.