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Taxpayers will now be able to see greater details of sanctions on their tax practitioner as the regulator moves to increase the transparency of its register.
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TPB unveils new ‘transparent’ register
04 March 2020
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10 minute read
The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has announced improvements to its register, including detailed reasons of any sanctions or terminations.
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The new register will also include details of practitioners who have resigned or surrendered their agent’s registration.
According to a TPB spokesperson, the new level of detail will include “high level information” on which provision of the Tax Agent Services Act (TASA) the practitioner had breached.
Accountants Daily understands that details of decisions will not be applied retrospectively and will only feature for new decisions.
Moving forward, the register will provide reasons for all matters where a sanction has been imposed, with the exception of written cautions.
“The register will include additional details that go to the board’s reasons for decision. This will provide the public with a summary of the agent’s misconduct that led to the sanction,” a TPB spokesperson told Accountants Daily.
“This will better inform the public when deciding to engage a registered practitioner, and provide transparency to ensure the integrity of the tax profession is maintained.”
The register will be updated with the new details once the board’s decision is effective, 28 days after the affected practitioner has been notified by the TPB of its decision.
The change comes as the regulator looks to act on a recommendation from the independent review of the TPB, which had taken aim at the fairly generic level of registration detail on the TPB register.
The TPB register had previously not provided any detailed explanation as to why a practitioner had not met their registration requirements.
The TPB register received 1.72 million searches in 2018–19.
“Nearly three-quarters of all taxpayers rely on tax practitioners to get their taxes right. The vast majority of these practitioners act with integrity and professionalism,” said TPB chair Ian Klug.
“We have updated our public register so that the community can more easily find registered agents who can be trusted.
“Anyone using the services of a tax agent, or considering engaging a new one, is urged to check the register to avoid the risk of potentially being exposed to fraud or unexpected tax liabilities and penalties, possibly running into thousands of dollars.”
TPB changes
While the final report of the TPB review has been presented to government, an official response has yet to be released.
The TPB review had examined a wide range of issues, including introducing new sanction tools to allow the TPB to be more agile in dealing with egregious or unregistered practitioners, and increasing the minimum primary education qualification for tax and BAS agents.
It also explored models to improve the effectiveness of the regulatory environment, including suggesting a return of the accountants’ exemption.
Last month, the TPB floated a proposal to significantly increase the minimum continuing professional education (CPE) requirement for all practitioners to simplify regulatory compliance and align more closely with the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Board (FASEA) and the major accounting bodies.
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