The Board Conduct Committee (BCC) rejected a company’s request to surrender its tax agent registration when the company was found to have breached multiple items of the Code of Professional Conduct (Code). 

The BCC also found the company had ceased to meet the tax practitioner registration requirements, as its sole director was no longer a fit and proper person to be registered. The director had other extensive failures to ensure that their related entities complied with their personal tax obligations. This included breaches of:

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

  • making a false or misleading statement in their application for renewal when they did not disclose overdue tax obligations in excess of $200,000

  • lodging over 10 business activity statements (BAS) that reported incorrect amounts of pay as you go (PAYG) withholding which resulted in the PAYG withholding estimates of over $100,000 raised by the Commissioner of Taxation, and penalties for recklessness

• Code item 2 – you must comply with the taxation laws in the conduct of your personal affairs by failing to:

  • lodge 4 income tax returns, 8 BAS, 4 instalment activity statements, and super guarantee charge statements, on time, and failing to pay tax debts exceeding $690,000

  • pay its tax debts when they fell due or comply with an ATO payment arrangements for the debts, including:

    • an integrated client account debt over $300,000

    • a super guarantee employer debt over $400,000.

Outcome

After completing our investigation, we terminated the company’s tax agent registration and banned them from reapplying for registration for 2 years.