The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) says it has recently investigated a number of cases where tax agents had been approached by third parties advising that they were acting on the authority of a number of taxpayers and the agents subsequently lodged income tax returns containing false payment summaries and other false information. The income tax returns were lodged in the names of real taxpayers whose identities had been stolen. The Board said its investigations found that in many instances, the tax agents had failed to carry out basic checks before lodging the returns.
The TPB said that as a result of its investigations, it had terminated the registration of 4 tax agents, suspended the registration of 2 tax agents, and accepted the surrender of another tax agent’s registration. Further, the Board said it will be lodging applications with the Federal Court seeking civil penalty orders against 3 agents whose registrations were terminated.
Consultative forum draft report
The Board has also released a draft report summarising key points discussed at a recent consultative forum held in Sydney on 31 July 2013. Representatives at the forum included the ATO, CPA Australia, Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, Institute of Public Accountants, and Law Council of Australia. Key topics in the draft report included: agent outreach, legislative amendments, education update, and professional practice work of the Board.
[LTN 165, 27/8/13]