Following an investigation, we terminated a BAS agent’s registration. We found the agent engaged in conduct which breached multiple items of the Code of Professional Conduct (Code), including:

• Code item 2 when they failed to comply with the tax laws in the conduct of their personal affairs. The agent failed to lodge a significant number of income tax returns (ITR) and business activity statements (BAS) for themselves and several related entities by their respective due dates. The agent also failed to pay or enter into an approved payment arrangement with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for outstanding debts 

• Code item 8 when they failed to maintain the knowledge and skills relevant to the tax agent services they provided. The agent failed to provide evidence that they had completed sufficient continuing professional education (CPE) to meet our requirements

• Code item 14 when they failed to respond to our requests in a timely, responsible and reasonable manner.

In addition to these Code breaches, we found the agent ceased to be a fit and proper person to be registered due to: 

• their extensive non-compliance with their taxation obligations pre-dating their registration as a BAS agent

• significantly understating their income in their ITRs for multiple income years which resulted in significant tax shortfalls

• claiming tax withholding credits they were not entitled to

• lodging incorrect BAS for multiple related entities to obtain GST refunds which these entities then had to repay

• incorrectly reporting in their BAS and fabricating invoices and supporting documents through their related entities to obtain GST refunds

• providing bookkeeping services to several entities prior to their registration as a BAS agent. This is particularly egregious as they were not registered with us, had not completed the relevant training, did not use appropriate accounting software, and did not maintain appropriate records or provide invoices for their services to the relevant entities.

Outcome

In deciding the appropriate sanctions to impose on the agent, the Board Conduct Committee (BCC) considered the lack of integrity this agent displayed and the fact that their conduct formed an ongoing pattern of behaviour that was inconsistent with the standards expected of a tax practitioner. The BCC terminated the BAS agent’s registration and imposed a 4-year ban from reapplying for registration.