The Board Conduct Committee (BCC) suspended a tax agent’s registration and handed down a number of administrative sanctions after our investigation revealed they failed to meet their personal tax obligations and act honestly and with integrity.

The BCC found the tax agent had breached Code item 2 of the Code of Professional Conduct by failing to comply with the taxation laws in the conduct of their personal affairs. They did not lodge a number of their personal income tax returns (ITR) and quarterly business activity statements (BAS) over an extended period. The tax agent had been provided with multiple opportunities to address their outstanding lodgements but had failed to do so.

In addition, the tax agent made false statements in an annual declaration and a renewal, stating that they did not have any overdue personal tax obligations when they did. Consequently, the BCC found the tax agent had breached Code item 1 by failing to act honestly and with integrity. 

Given the above, the BCC decided to impose the following administrative sanctions:

• suspension of the tax agent’s registration for one month

• an order requiring the tax agent to lodge all of their outstanding returns 

• an order requiring the tax agent to pay any outstanding tax debts or enter into an active payment arrangement for these debts within two months of their suspension ceasing.