Today the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) issued a range of guidance products to support tax practitioners.
This practical guidance addresses Government reforms to the tax and regulatory system which improve community confidence, address misconduct, enhance professional standards and ensure a level playing field.
The reforms enhance the Code of Professional Conduct (Code) to support the majority of tax practitioners who act ethically and legally in advising their clients and improve transparency. This ensures tax practitioners engage with the TPB or the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to address false or misleading statements and that significant breaches of the Code are notified to the TPB.
These new guidance products explain how the 8 new Code items, contained in the Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024 (Determination), apply. This will be particularly useful for larger tax practitioner firms, with more than 100 employees, that need to comply with the new Determination from 1 January 2025. For all other smaller tax practitioners, the new obligations commence from 1 July 2025.
The TPB guidance products have been shaped by extensive stakeholder consultation and feedback. TPB Chair, Peter de Cure AM acknowledged this support and said, ‘Tax practitioners, professional associations and community representative organisations worked with the TPB to clarify issues and provide practical case studies. We thank these stakeholders for their participation in multiple roundtable discussions and 24 written submissions that were received during public consultation.’
TPB support for tax practitioners and the implementation of these integrity reforms is ongoing, and in addition to the formal guidance products, includes our 4-part webinar series (that attracted 11,000 attendees) and developing practical guidance and case studies addressing the variety of tax practitioners, from sole practitioner to large firms. The TPB will continue to take a pragmatic approach to support awareness and voluntary compliance.
Mr de Cure noted, ‘Most tax practitioners do the right thing and will readily comply with these reforms. The new obligations build on the principles in the existing Code, and strengthen professional standards such as honesty and integrity, competence and reasonable care, confidentiality and client engagement.’
The TPB, ATO and partner agencies have taken action against tax advisers who fail their clients or who undermine tax system integrity.
‘The TPB will act against unlawful tax practitioners or unregistered preparers, to protect the Australian community. Proportionate action may include termination of registration or seeking civil penalty orders from the courts. Recently the Federal Court handed down a civil penalty for a TPB application against Sydney unregistered preparer, Jayden Van Dyke. Mr Van Dyke was issued with a $1.8 million penalty for 3,300 separate contraventions of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 when he prepared and lodged income tax returns, for a fee, while not a registered tax agent with the TPB’, Mr de Cure said.
About the Tax Practitioners Board
The TPB regulates tax practitioners in order to protect consumers. The TPB aims to assure the community that tax practitioners meet appropriate standards of professional and ethical conduct. Follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Monday 23 December 2024