The Board Conduct Committee (BCC) investigated the conduct of a registered tax agent who allegedly lodged fraudulent BAS and failed to pay outstanding tax liabilities amounting to $1.6 million.

The BCC determined the agent had breached the Code of Professional Conduct by failing to act honestly and with integrity by:

• lodging false BAS for clients to generate a GST refund that they were not entitled

• altering clients’ financial details to receive their refunds into the agents personal account 

• failing to pay an outstanding tax liability for themselves and for 24 related entities

• being subject to legal recovery action.

The Committee decided to terminate the tax agent registration. Considering the serious nature of the conduct and the significant financial benefit obtained, the Committee also prohibited them from applying for registration for five years.