Issued: 21 October 2019
Last modified: 21 October 2019
Date of decision: 10 September 2019
The Board Conduct Committee (BCC) terminated the registration of a tax agent following findings of several Code of Professional Conduct (Code) breaches. The BCC found that the agent had ceased to meet the fit and proper person registration requirement and prohibited them from applying for registration for five years.
Some of the Code breaches found are detailed below.
Code item 1 – Acting with honesty and integrity
The agent had:
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failed to disclose their overdue personal tax obligations and disqualification as a trustee under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SISA) in their registration renewal application and annual declarations
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provided false and misleading information to the Board in response to its enquiries.
Code item 2 – Complying with taxation laws in the conduct of personal affairs
The tax agent failed to:
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ensure independence of the audit of several superannuation funds’ annual returns
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lodge their returns and of related entities on time
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pay their tax debts and of related entities on time
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properly declare reportable income and keep accurate records resulting in the imposition of penalties.
Code item 7 - Ensuring tax agent service is provided competently
The agent did not make sufficient enquiries to ensure that the income tax returns lodged on behalf of a number of clients were correct.
Code item 9 – Taking reasonable care to ascertain client’s state of affairs
In lodging a client’s tax returns, the agent failed to ascertain the client’s entitlement to the claiming of work-related deductions.
Further Code breaches
In addition to the above breaches, the agent was also found to have breached Code items 11 and 14 as they obstructed the proper administration of taxation laws and were discourteous in their dealings with the Tax Practitioners Board.