Following an investigation, our Board Conduct Committee (BCC) decided to terminate the registration of a tax agent who had a conditional registration (goods and services tax – specialty), after finding that they had breached the Code of Professional Conduct (Code) and ceased to meet the registration requirements to be a fit and proper person and to maintain professional indemnity (PI) insurance.

The tax agent breached Code item 1 when they failed to act honestly and with integrity by: 

• providing misleading answers to the Western Australian Corruption and Crime Commission (WA CCC) 
• failing to comply with the non-disclosure notation in the summons issued to them by the WA CCC.

The agent also breached Code item 13 by failing to hold a PI insurance policy that met the requirements for registration as a tax agent. 

The BCC found the tax agent ceased to meet the registration requirement that they were a fit and proper person when they provided a contractor of the Western Australia Department of Communities (DoC) with a list of questions for the purpose of manipulating the appointment process for a DoC legal services panel.

The contractor used the questions devised by the tax agent to screen current and prospective members of the DoC legal services panel and arranged for the panel to be refreshed for the purpose of having their preferred candidates unfairly appointed to the panel. 

The tax agent was also found to have received confidential information from a public officer and a contractor of the DoC and failed to take any steps to report this breach of confidentiality. 

Additionally, the agent was complicit in the ongoing employment of a family member of a DoC employee, where that employment was a benefit provided in return for the ongoing referral of DoC work to the agent’s company.

The tax agent’s conduct was considered so deceptive that along with termination of their registration, the BCC also imposed a 3-year period in which they could not reapply for registration.