iscoverA tax agent has been issued with a written warning after he gave a colleague access to his myGov login, who used the credentials to commit GST fraud.
Tax agent gets written caution after colleague used his credentials for GST fraud
16 September 2025
•
9 minute read
On 5 September 2025, registered tax agent Sumit Bagga was given a written caution from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) after he provided his colleague, Amit Kumar, with his myGovID login credentials.
As a tax agent, Bagga had access to the Australian Taxation Officer (ATO) portal known as online services for agents. Through this system, tax agents can electronically lodge returns and obtain client records, for the purpose of providing their services.
You’re out of free articles for this month
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Kumar, who began working at Bagga’s accounting company, Auz Taxation, in April 2022, obtained Bagga’s myGovID login credentials. Bagga said he gave Kumar full access to his myGov account as Kumar was not able to obtain his own myGovID as he had recently arrived in Australia.
However, in May and June 2022, Kumar used his access to Bagga’s myGov account - and thus the ATO portal for tax agents - to commit GST fraud, the court said.
“Using the credentials, Mr Kumar fraudulently lodged activity statements on behalf of two companies and directed GST refunds from those companies to be paid into a bank account controlled by Mr Kumar,” court documents read.
“In short, the fraudulent conduct consisted of linking the two taxpayers as clients of the Company, recording the taxpayers’ bank details as an account controlled by Mr Kumar and lodging fraudulent returns for the two companies in respect of the March 2022 quarter.”
Despite becoming aware of the fraud, Bagga did not dismiss Kumar from his role. Instead, he issued Kumar with a written warning letter, and allowed him to continue working for the company.
Kumar went on to try to register as a tax agent. Bagga signed his ‘statement of relevant experience’ (SRE),’ certifying that Bagga had supervised and controlled Kumar’s work. However, court documents found that the SRE contained errors, such as the date Kumar began working for the company.
Bagga said he directed the errors to be corrected before the SRE was submitted to the TPB. Regardless, the ‘erroneous’ SRE was lodged on around 9 February 2023.
Kumar also was permitted by Bagga to use the myGovID of Kumar’s wife, Sayeesha Monga, to access the myGov portal for company purposes. Using her credentials, Kumar registered a further taxpayer as a client of the company in November 2022.
“Using Ms Monga’s credentials, Mr Kumar registered a further taxpayer as a client of the Company on 7 November 2022,” court documents read.
“This was done in circumstances where the new client said it had not provided its written authorisation and in circumstances where Mr Bagga was not aware of the new client and had not given any authority to Mr Kumar to do so.”
Court documents said that Bagga was notified about this by the Tax Practitioner’s Board (TPB) in a 6 March 2023 letter, which stated that a complaint had been made by the client to the ATO.
On 7 March 2023, Bagga said he confronted Kumar about the taxpayer and the false SRE and terminated his employment on 8 March 2023.
In addition to these matters, the AAT identified several other issues with Bagga’s conduct.
These included late lodgement of income tax returns and activity statements for companies associated with Bagga, as well as late lodgement of his personal tax returns. Bagga’s professional indemnity insurance also had expired on 24 February 2023, and his company’s expired on 24 February 2022.
On 25 January 2024, the TPB terminated the registered tax agent status of Bagga and his company, Auz Taxation, due to the code breaches.
However, the appeals tribunal found that Bagga and his company were ‘of good character’ and determined that his breaches were a result of mistakes or ‘less than perfect procedures’ rather than deliberate wrongdoing.
It also found that Bagga had cooperated fully with the ATO and TPB, and had undertaken further training in relation to ethics, governance and fraud since Kumar’s fraud was discovered in June 2022.
As such, the AAT set aside the TPB’s decision to terminate the registered tax agent status of Bagga and his company, and instead provided him with a written caution.
Bagga was required to notify clients and staff about the caution, impose client training on myGovID and online services for agents platform, and appoint at least one new director who was a registered tax agent.
The company was also required to ensure that each branch had at least one registered tax agent, and that Bagga would complete remedial education on the TASA code and human resources management.
You need to be a member to post comments. Become a member for free today!
