Changes were introduced by the government to implement recommendations arising from a 2019 independent review into the effectiveness of the TPB and the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA) and other government reforms to restore public trust and confidence in the regulation of the tax profession. The reforms outline additional information that must now be included on the TPB Register, so consumers can make an informed choice about tax practitioners prior to engaging them to provide tax agent or BAS services.

We will only publish a decision to reject a new application or renewal if it has been rejected for integrity grounds because the applicant does not meet the fit and proper person requirements, including if the entity has been convicted of a serious taxation offence, or an offence involving fraud or dishonesty.

Publishing decisions to reject new applications for registration is also limited in certain circumstances, such as where the applicant was previously registered, or was required to be on the Register due to a Federal Court application, order, injunction, or other court findings and decisions.

We will include this information for 5 years from the date of the rejection decision if the decision was made on or after 1 July 2022.

Any sanction (other than a written caution) that took effect on or after 1 July 2022 will appear on the Register for the longer of 5 years, or the period the sanction is in force.

In certain circumstances we are required to publish all legal names and any tax or BAS agent registration numbers, that a current (or former) registered tax practitioner has had within the last 5 years, on the Register.

Historical legal names and registration numbers are required to be published in the following circumstances: 

• if you received a sanction (e.g. an order, suspension or termination) which took effect on or after 1 July 2022 and it is still in force, or within 5 years of the date of effect
• if you had an application for renewal rejected on integrity grounds on or after 1 July 2022 and within the last 5 years
• if you had a new application for registration rejected on integrity grounds, on or after 1 July 2022 and within the last 5 years, and at the time of rejection you:
  • had previously been registered either within the last 5 years, or at any time prior to rejection and we are satisfied it was appropriate to publish information relating to the rejection, or
  •  were required to be on the Register due to a Federal Court application, order, injunction, or other court findings and decisions
• the Federal Court made an order for civil penalties, or granted an injunction, in relation to you within the last 5 years and on or after 5 July 2019, or
• within the last 5 years, we published findings of certain other investigations in relation to you (e.g. an investigation in relation to unregistered preparers).

If you are currently a registered tax or BAS agent, your historical legal names and/or registration numbers (if any) will be published when you next register or renew your registration from 5 July 2024.

If the historical information relates to you as an individual, you can make a request to the Board in writing for this information to be removed from the Register. In your request, you will need to explain why including your historical legal names and/or historical registration numbers on the Register poses a risk to the safety of you or your family. In considering your request, we must be satisfied that due to the safety risk it would not be appropriate to publish the historical information during a particular period. Publishing historical information on the Register poses a safety risk if it creates, increases, maintains, or otherwise contributes to the safety risk. 

If you are already registered with us, you will not have to provide this information straight away. When it comes time to renew your registration you will be prompted to enter the last 5 years of legal name changes via the Update Legal or Practice name form. 

New registrants will be asked to provide this information on their registration application form.

No, not in most cases. We will only display connections between entities (registered or unregistered) when both have a breach that is required to be entered on the Register, and we are satisfied both breaches relate to the same conduct or matter. If the misconduct is not related to you, you will not have information relating to another entity’s misconduct attached to your Register profile.

Yes, we will remove deceased agents from the Register once we have received notification, except in certain circumstances where we have investigated the individual’s conduct, found a breach, and decided to publish information relating to that finding for 5 years. In those circumstances, if we are notified that the individual has died within those 5 years, we must publish a statement to that effect for the remainder of the 5-year period.

You can complete our online form to notify the death of a registered tax practitioner.

Yes, we will be including enhanced filtering on the Register. The new search options will include the ability to filter by recognised professional associations, sanctions decision outcomes (order, suspension and termination), rejection of new or renewal applications and any conditions imposed on a registration.

Yes, we will include information about Federal Court applications, appeals, findings and decisions. This applies to any current or new applications and appeals, and any Court findings and decisions made within the past 5 years and on or after 5 July 2019. This information will include the following:

• If a breach is found, we will include details of the relevant conduct and the section(s) of the TASA the Court found had been contravened.
• If a penalty is ordered, we will include the amount of the penalty.
• If an injunction is ordered, we will include the details of the injunction including what action/s are required or prevented and the duration of the injunction.
• The date(s) of the Court’s judgement.
• Access to the full Federal Court judgement(s).

Yes, we will publish information relating to Administrative Review Tribunal (ART)* reviews of certain TPB decisions that have taken effect (including sanctions), including that a review application has been made, and any details of the application or the ART decision that we consider appropriate. Publishing details relating to the ART review applications and decisions is subject to any ART orders for non-publication or non-disclosure and may only be published for a maximum of 5 years from the date that information is first entered on the Register.

*Note: The Administrative Review Tribunal has replaced the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on 14 October 2024.