The AAT has upheld a period of 3 years during which a de-registered tax agent is prohibited from applying for registration as a tax agent.
The applicant commenced practice as a registered tax agent in 2005. He lodged 164 tax returns on the instructions of one of 2 men who had approached him about preparing tax returns for clients of theirs (the men had claimed to be representatives of a recruitment company) and of a third intermediary.
The AAT said all of those tax returns contained false information eg the PAYG tax amounts claimed to have been withheld were overstated, the income figures were wrong, deductions were claimed that were not allowable, etc. Most of the refunds were between $3,000 and $5,000 per tax return. The Tribunal said the applicant did not check the bona fides of the intermediaries, had not asked for any identification of any of the taxpayers, and did not check the accuracy of any of the payment summaries, or any of the details relating to the taxpayers.
The ATO investigated the agent and the Tax Practitioners Board subsequently commenced its own investigation. In August 2013, the Board wrote to the applicant to inform him that it had decided to terminate his registration as a tax agent; that it had determined that he would not be permitted to apply for registration as a tax agent for a period of 3 years; and that it would be applying to the Federal Court for payment of a pecuniary penalty in respect of various contraventions of the TAS Act.
The applicant did not contest the Board’s decisions but he considered that the 3-year non-application period was excessive, and applied to the Tribunal for review of that decision. The Tribunal considered the 3-year period was appropriate.
(AAT case [2014] AATA 644, Re Su and Tax Practitioners Board, AAT, Frost DP and Gaudion M, AAT Ref: 2013/4349; 4354; 4355, 4 September 2014.)
[LTN 173, 8/9/14]