The Federal Court has dismissed the applicant’s appeal from the decision of the AAT in AAT Case [2011] AATA 804, Re Kolya and Tax Practitioners Board which affirmed the decision of the Tax Practitioners Board to reject his application for transitional registration as a tax agent on the basis he was not “a fit and proper person” and to later terminate his registration as a BAS Agent.
The applicant argued that the AAT had not applied the correct law (ie the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 and the Tax Agent Services (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009) and that it had not complied with its obligation to provide an appropriate statement for its reasons. He also argued that he had been denied procedural fairness and additional findings of fact should be made by the Court.
In dismissing the applicant’s appeal, the Court found the AAT had applied the correct law and that the transitional arrangements did not remove the requirement that a person be a “fit and proper person” for the purposes of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009. It also found it was an insurmountable obstacle to the applicant’s case that the AAT had found, on the facts and evidence, that he was not to be a fit and proper person. The Court also found that the AAT had adequately explained the conclusions it reached in terms of the requirement to set forth in its “findings on material questions of fact”.
Finally the Court also found that the applicant’s argument that he had been denied procedural fairness was without substance and dismissed his claim that this additional finding of fact should be made by the Court on the basis that this task had been expressly entrusted by the Legislature to the AAT.
(Kolya v Tax Practitioners Board [2012] FCA 215, Federal Court, Flick J, 13 March 2012.)
[LTN 50, 14/3]