The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has reminded registered tax and BAS agents that it is important for them to keep their personal tax obligations up-to-date. Registered tax and BAS agents who fail to meet their personal tax obligations are breaching the Code of Professional Conduct (Code item 2) contained in the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA). In the last 12 months, the Board said it completed around 145 investigations of registered tax and BAS agents who had failed to lodge their personal income tax returns or BASs. It said the investigations have resulted in 17 agents’ registrations being terminated, 96 formal written cautions issued, and 4 formal orders to take action being issued.
The TPB has also reminded tax agents to be wary of requests by third parties to lodge multiple income tax returns on behalf of community groups, workplace groups, overseas students or itinerant workers. Third parties may claim to be acting on the authority of a number of taxpayers and approach an agent to lodge their income tax returns. However, the Board said registered tax agents have an obligation to take reasonable steps to ascertain a client’s state of affairs and to verify information. It added that agents should also protect their business from fraudulent activities by keeping personal information safe and secure from unauthorised access and misuse.
[LTN 84, 6/5/14]