‘Letters of Engagement’ – Law Council’s submission to the TPB on its 10 page exposure draft of Practice Note TPB(PN) D40/2019 – where it goes too far

On 10 May 2019, the Tax Practitioner’s Board (Board) issued a draft Practice Note TPB(PN) D40/2019 – giving guidance to tax agents, that register with the Board, on status of ‘Letters of engagement’, their relevance, roll and the matters the Board thought relevant to include. On 31 May 2019, the Law Council of Australia (LCA)…

Legal Professional Privilege (LPP) claims – ATO ‘consulting’ on ‘full LPP review’ terms in lawyers’ retainers – lawyers push back on this …

The ATO has been consulting on ‘improving’ lawyers ‘scope of engagement’ agreements – to deal with, what they see, as problems with ‘legal professional privilege’ (LPP) claims. Effectively, they misunderstand who the privilege belongs to, and they presume to influence the terms on which lawyers are retained by clients. This idea got legs in the 30…

The National Tax Liaison Group (NTLG) meeting on 30 November 2018 – ‘Key Messages’ document, including: ATO independent review, Digital economy, black economy, IGT on fraud control, ‘Reporting entities’ and LPP

The National Tax Liaison Group met on 30 November 2018, and subsequent to that, the ATO issued a ‘Key Messages’ document, which covered each of the items, including: Independent Review for entities that are not ‘large’ or ‘small’; Digital economy; Black economy; Inspector-General of Taxation’s Review of Fraud Control Management; and ‘Reporting entities’ and who should prepare General…