An individual tax agent had their registration suspended for three months and was ordered to complete, and pass, a course on ethics. Our investigations revealed the tax agent had breached multiple provisions of the Code of Professional Conduct (Code). 

The Board Conduct Committee (BCC) determined that the tax agent had breached:

• Code item 1 – you must act honestly and with integrity

• Code item 2 – you must comply with the taxation laws in the conduct of your personal affairs. 

The tax agent lodged an amended business activity statement (BAS) on behalf of a company tax agent (of which they were the sole director), where they reported false amounts of salary and wages and PAYG withholding amounts. The tax agent deliberately reported these false amounts and attempted to characterise them as payments that had not genuinely occurred, so the company would be eligible to receive a COVID-19 cash flow boost payment that they knew, or should have known, the company was not entitled to. 

The tax agent also failed, in their capacity as a director of two companies, to lodge multiple income tax returns and BAS for those companies by the due dates.

The BCC also considered a submission in relation to the company tax agent lodging a false amended BAS on behalf of the individual tax agent (as their sole director). It was determined the company tax agent had also breached Code items 1 and 2 when they failed to act with honesty and integrity and did not comply with tax laws in the conduct of its personal affairs. The company tax agent deliberately reported false salary and wage and tax withheld amounts in its BAS for the sole purpose of receiving a cash flow boost payment that it was not eligible for.

Based on the serious nature of the company tax agent’s Code breaches, which included making false statements in a BAS for the purpose of receiving a financial benefit, the BCC also suspended the company’s registration for a period of three months.