iscoverA tax agent attempting to make a surrender of registration request has been rejected by the Board Conduct Committee of the TPB.
‘Surrender rejected’: TPB denies tax agent’s attempt to quit
12 September 2025
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7 minute read
The TPB's Board of Conduct Committee (BCC) has refused a surrender of registration request by a tax agent who had been under investigation for misconduct.
According to the TPB, the BCC said, “The surrender request was refused on the basis that it would be inappropriate to accept a surrender request once a notice of investigation has been served and an investigation into misconduct had commenced”.
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However, despite the registration termination rejection, the tax agent was found not to be a fit and proper person and was banned from reapplying as a tax practitioner for two years.
The completed investigation on the tax agent found they had breached four items of the Code of Professional Conduct.
The breaches included code item one, acting with honesty and integrity, code item two, complying with tax laws in the conduct of personal affairs, code item seven, tax agent services provided competently and code item nine, reasonable care in ascertaining a client’s state of affairs.
On the various breaches, it was found that the agent had breached code item one by making six false and misleading statements when they lodged applications for renewal of registration and failed to declare they were an undischarged bankrupt or had been in the last five years.
Code item two was breached by the tax agent failing to pay their taxation debts in their individual capacity and as a director of an associated entity.
Finally, code items seven and nine were breached by preparing and lodging business activity statements for four clients who were then subject to ATO compliance activities.
“These compliance activities resulted in total shortfalls of over $1.2 million, with the ATO further cancelling their clients’ GST registrations after they determined they were not carrying on a business,” the TPB said.
“In making its decision, the BCC noted that the Board’s role is to ensure consumer protection and that it has an objective to protect and maintain the integrity of the registered tax practitioner profession.”
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