The Board Conduct Committee (BCC) recently terminated the registration of a tax agent who failed to maintain professional indemnity (PI) insurance that meets our requirements.

The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) investigated the tax agent’s conduct following a complaint from a client.  

Our investigations revealed that the tax agent’s previous PI insurance policy had expired and they had not notified us of any current policy which covered tax agent services they provided. The TPB requested the agent to provide their current PI insurance policy details on numerous occasions but they failed to respond to our requests.  

To remain registered, tax practitioners must maintain PI insurance that meets our requirements.  

Following our investigation into the complaint, the BCC found that the tax agent had failed to lodge multiple tax returns on behalf of the client by the required due dates, despite receiving instructions to do so and assuring the client that the returns would be lodged. The BCC found that the agent failed to provide a competent service to the client and therefore breached the Code of the Professional Conduct (Code item 7). 

The BCC also found that the tax agent breached other Code items which included: 

• Code item 2 – by failing to comply with their personal tax obligations, as they had not lodged their own tax returns for multiple financial years and had outstanding tax debts with no payment arrangement in place with the Australian Taxation Office 

• Code item 13 – by failing to maintain PI insurance that meets our requirements 

• Code item 14 – by failing to respond to multiple requests for information that the TPB issued to them to assist our enquiries into their conduct in a timely, responsible and reasonable manner. 

The BCC decided to terminate the tax agent’s registration on the basis that they ceased to meet the tax practitioner registration requirement to maintain PI insurance that meets our requirements.

In making this decision, the BCC noted in particular that the maintenance of a current PI insurance policy is essential for a practitioner who seeks to provide tax agent services to the public and that the agent had failed to address this matter despite several requests to do so.

Once you are registered with us, you will need to update your PI insurance details whenever there is a change in your policy, including every time the policy is renewed. You can do this via My Profile at any time, or on your online renewal application or annual declaration form.