On 4 June 2021, the AAT has confirmed a decision of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) to cancel a tax agent’s registration for not acting “with honesty and integrity”; failed to provide information about a complaint he knew was legitimate and some other ‘meltdown’ behaviour.
See below for further details.
The facts were these.
- Mr R, who was a registered tax agent, conducted his practice through Le’Sam Accounting Pty Ltd (Le’Sam).
- Le’Sam was also registered as a tax agent and Mr R was at all material times the company’s only director and the supervising tax agent.
- In December 2019, after investigating a complaint against Mr R, the TPB cancelled his registration, and consequently Le’Sam’s registration, as it considered he no longer met the “fit and proper person” requirement.
- The TPB also imposed 3-year bans on both Mr R and Le’Sam.
The AAT has affirmed the decisions to cancel the registrations, on the basis that Mr R did not respond to requests for information from the TPB in a “timely, responsible and reasonable manner” and that “he did not act with honesty and integrity” in his dealings with the TPB, contrary to the Code of Professional Conduct. The AAT said that Mr R knew the complaint was legitimate, “yet he resisted the investigation, made scandalous attacks on the Board and refused to comply with [a] s 60-100 notice” (issued by the TPB).
In addition, Mr R had demonstrated “a lax approach to data security” when he (or an employee) accessed information on the Tax Agent’s Portal about a former client who was involved in legal proceedings against Mr R at the time.
The AAT also affirmed the 3-year ban imposed on Mr R, but overturned the 3-year ban imposed on Le’Sam as the company was capable of meeting the eligibility requirements if it were under different management that did not include Mr R.
(Le’Sam Accounting Pty Ltd and Tax Practitioners Board [2021] AATA 1593, AAT, McCabe DP, 21 May 2021.)
[LTN 112, 15/6/21]