The Tax Practitioners Board has been successful before the Federal Court in seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against an individual for alleged contraventions of s 50-5(1) of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009.

The Board alleged the individual, who had never been registered as a tax agent, had contravened s 50-5(1) on 86 separate occasions between July 2010 and October 2012 by preparing and lodging income tax returns for clients of her accounting business, and charging a fee or reward for those services. The individual admitted to 55 of the alleged contraventions but challenged the remaining 31, arguing that she had not charged a fee for the preparation and lodgment of those returns.

The Court was satisfied, based on the evidence before it, that the individual had contravened s 50-5(1) in respect of the 31 contested contraventions. The Court noted tax invoices that had been rendered by the individual for the preparation of those returns. It also noted, in relation to 5 contested transactions where tax invoices were not available, there were bank statements showing payments made by the relevant taxpayers to the individual for amounts that equated to $80, which was the standard fee charged by the individual per tax return. The Court made an order requiring the individual, for a period of 3 years, to disclose to clients seeking tax agent services that she was not a registered tax agent and could not charge a fee for such services. The Court also relisted the issue of appropriate penalty to be heard at a later date.

(Tax Practitioners Board v Dedic [2014] FCA 307, Federal Court, Davies J, 31 March 2014.)

[LTN 62, 1/4/14]