iscover TPB must act proportionately in sanctions powers, IPA says
BusinessWith the TPB’s latest proposed powers allowing the board to suspend tax agents without an investigation or natural justice, an accounting body has said this will inevitably catch innocent practitioners out and has called for safeguards.
An accounting body has stressed the impacts that the TPB’s latest interim suspension powers will have on practitioners if they are eventually cleared of wrongdoing, calling for safeguards.
The new sanctions in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Accountability for Tax Adviser Misconduct and Other Measures) Bill 2026, announced by Treasury on 2 July this year, will target unregistered preparers and wrongdoing tax advisers, and not introduce any more rules for advisers doing the right thing.
One of the amendments includes granting the TPB powers to issue 90-day interim suspensions to agents for alleged misconduct without the need for natural justice or an investigation
The Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) stressed that safeguards must be put in place to prevent practitioners ultimately found not guilty of wrongdoing from suffering consequences to their livelihoods.
“While a practitioner’s interim suspension may be completely removed after their suspension period ceases, without transparent, publicly available information, former clients and potential new clients may not be able to confidently ascertain that the practitioner has in fact been cleared of breaching their responsibilities, thereby prolonging reputational harm,” it said.
“In reality, an interim suspension will have an immediate impact on the practitioner’s professional reputation, and this reputational harm may continue even beyond the cessation of the suspension even where the practitioner has been cleared of wrongdoing.”
Further, the body recommended that TPB be given the power to require a shorter period of disclosure of the sanction on the TPB register depending on the “nature of the breach that gave rise to the enforceable undertaking and the practitioner’s actions to comply with the enforceable undertaking, to accurately reflect the severity and practitioner’s conduct.”
“If the practitioner’s breach or misconduct is not of a severity that warrants section 45 disclosure then arguably it may not necessarily require the same register disclosure period as more serious misdemeanours and sanctions.”
Finally, the body urged the TPB to develop transparent policies and detailed public guidance on these rules to provide certainty to practitioners about the behaviours and factors that may result in the relevant circumstances.
“Robust guidance also provides reassurance to the taxpayer public that the TPB will appropriately apply available sanctions to registered agents and unregistered preparers who breach the rules and their clients’ trust.”
“We suggest that the TPB undertakes a detailed consultation process with stakeholders in the development of these policy and guidance documents, and the IPA would be pleased to assist in this.”
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