The Tax Practitioners Board

Purpose

The Board’s purpose is to regulate tax practitioners in a fair, consistent and practical way under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA).

In doing so we aim to protect consumers and assure the community that tax agents and business activity statement (BAS) agents meet appropriate standards of professional and ethical conduct.

The Board achieves this by:

• administering a national registration system for tax agents and BAS agents to ensure that registered agents have the necessary competence and personal attributes

• regulating tax and BAS agents through measured responses to breaches of the TASA by registered agents, and

• taking Federal Court action against unregistered preparers, seeking injunctions and civil penalties where appropriate.

Vision

Bring all registered tax practitioners together under an effective regulatory framework for the benefit of the Australian community.

Snapshot

• The Tax Practitioners Board is an independent statutory body created under the TASA to register and regulate entities providing tax agent services, including BAS services, in Australia.

• Around 54,000 agents were registered at 30 June 2011, including tax agents, BAS agents, and professionals in other disciplines who provide services with a tax advice element, such as quantity surveyors and research and development consultants. This figure included over 37,000 tax agents and almost 17,000 BAS agents.

• There were approximately 39,000 registered agents at the start of the financial year on 1 July 2010. This figure included around 34,000 tax agents and 5,000 BAS agents.

• At 30 June 2011 the Board consisted of 11 members including the Chair. Other than the Chair, Board members are part-time and include people with a background in tax, accounting, bookkeeping, law, academia and business.

Achievements in 2010–11

• The Board has dealt with the initial surge in applications for registration, finalising 20,858 new applications during the year, leaving 880 awaiting processing or under review at 30 June 2011.

• The requirements for registration have been articulated in consultation with professional bodies, the education sector and other stakeholders.

• After extensive consultations, the Board undertook considerable work to define education eligibility criteria for applicants for registration, including the content of Board approved courses in Australian taxation law, commercial law and basic accounting principles for tax agents, as well as basic GST/BAS taxation principles for BAS agents.

• A compliance and enforcement approach has been developed, with several investigations occurring in relation to potential breaches of the TASA.

• We have dealt effectively with many lower level complaints about the services of registered agents, using a now well-established risk management and treatment system.

• Practical guidance on fitness and propriety and Code of Professional Conduct requirements of registered agents has been issued by the Board.

• After extensive consultations, we developed the Board’s approach to professional indemnity (PI) insurance, and issued a requirement that all registered tax practitioners have PI insurance cover.

• The Board has assisted Treasury to define the scope of the tax agent services regime.

• Six organisations were recognised by the Board as recognised BAS agent associations and nine organisations as recognised tax agent associations.

• The Board has actively consulted with stakeholders, in particular the professional associations, in establishing this new national system for the regulation of tax practitioners.

Contents

01 Review by the Chair

Registration and other services
Registration requirements
Continuing professional education
Professional indemnity insurance
Compliance framework
Awareness and communication
Planning and governance
Finance
Challenges for the year ahead

02 Overview of the Board and its role

Who we are and what we do
Legislative framework
The Board’s powers
Our values
Business model
Reporting arrangements
Members of the Board
Operations and organisational structure

03 Performance and achievements

Program and outcome framework
Enabling functions
Financial operations

04 Management and accountability

Corporate governance
External scrutiny
Our staff
Assets management
Purchasing and consultancies
Changes to disability reporting in annual reports

Appendixes

Appendix A Annual report compliance index
Appendix B Freedom of information
Appendix C Information provided to law enforcement agencies and royal commissions
Appendix D Ecologically sustainable development and environmental performance
Appendix E Contact for more information

Glossary
Tables

Table 3.1: Professional associations officially recognised by the Board at 30 June 2011
Table 3.2: Registration applications received and processed 2010–11
Table 3.3: Registration applications rejected, 2010–11
Table 3.4: Active registrations at 30 June 2011
Table 3.5: Direct expenditure by cost centre, 2010–11
Table 4.1: Policy and consultative committees
Table 4.2: Operational committees
Table 4.3: Finalised litigation, 2010–11
Table 4.4: Employees by functional stream at 30 June 2011
Table 4.5: Employees by classification and gender at 30 June 2011
Table 4.6: Employees by location at 30 June 2011

Figures

Figure 1.1: Tax agents and BAS agents (individuals) by gender at 30 June 2011
Figure 1.2: Tax agents and BAS agents (individuals) by age at 30 June 2011
Figure 2.1: The Board’s values
Figure 2.2: The Board’s business model
Figure 2.3: Roles
Figure 2.4: Board organisational structure
Figure 3.1: Tax agents with conditional registration at 30 June 2011
Figure 3.2: Visits to Board website, 2010–11

Board members

Back Row: George Fox, Cynthia Coleman, Chris Doogan, Dale Pinto, Roger Cotton, Yvonne Sneddon, Gordon Cooper, Miriam Holmes, Michael Evans, Matthew Addison
Front Row: Mark Maskell, Dale Boucher, Russell Smith

01 Review by the Chair

After the first full operating year for the Tax Practitioners Board, I am pleased to report on a successful start to the tax agent services regime.

Our task has been to give practical effect to the Tax Agent Services Act 2009.

In 16 months since the Board’s start-up, we have established a national regulatory framework and registration system, and achieved broad awareness in the tax profession of the registration requirements of the new regime. We now need to do more to refine that framework and improve community and practitioner knowledge of the Board and its role.

The Board regulates the operations of some 54,000 tax practitioners, of whom around 37,000 are registered tax agents and 17,000 are registered BAS agents. Registered agents (who include individuals, companies and partnerships) provide a wide range of tax agent services to taxpayers, from broad tax advice and tax return preparation to BAS services and specialist tax advice as part of broader professional services.

As well as clearing an initial influx of new registration applications at the start of the year, our primary focus has been on setting educational and other requirements for registration, designing our compliance approach, and providing information to agents to guide them on registration and conduct requirements.

We have also taken steps to better protect the community by requiring registered agents to hold professional indemnity insurance cover from 1 July 2011.

The Board has settled in well to its regulatory role, but has more to do to fully implement this new system for regulating tax practitioners.

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Registration and other services

During the year we overcame a backlog in registrations and are confi dent that we will achieve further improvements in processing registrations.

Measures taken to improve the registration process for agents and shorten processing times have included a new online registration process and a new process to ensure early contact is made with applicants who have submitted incomplete applications.

We have also implemented an online process for agents to notify us of their professional indemnity insurance arrangements.

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Registration requirements

We have made significant progress in setting the education requirements for registration as a tax agent and BAS agent – in consultation with stakeholders, professional associations and the educational sector.

The Board has taken steps to inform stakeholders of the requirements for Board approved courses that cover critical content such as Australian taxation law, commercial law, basic accounting principles and basic GST/BAS taxation principles. Our approved course providers’ framework sets out the policy that the Board will apply to approve course providers (in addition to tertiary institutions and registered training organisations) to be able to deliver Board approved courses.

We have also articulated the fit and proper person criteria for registration.

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Continuing professional education

Under the Code of Professional Conduct, all registered agents must deliver tax agent and BAS services competently. Continuing professional education (CPE) is one way in which agents can maintain and demonstrate their competence. Following consultation with professional bodies and focus group discussions with practitioners, the Board developed an exposure draft paper on its proposed CPE policy. We aim to complete our consideration of this and to establish our expectations of agents during the first half of 2012.

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Professional indemnity insurance

Many currently registered agents told us they did not have professional indemnity (PI) insurance when they first became registered with the Board. This was a significant factor for the Board to support its decision, made in principle in February 2010, generally to require registered agents to have PI insurance cover.

Therefore, during the year we consulted widely about how to establish such a requirement for registered agents. Our aim has been to ensure that consumers of tax agent services, including BAS services, are appropriately protected and that there is a mechanism in place to ensure that funds will be available to compensate clients who suffer loss due to any negligent conduct of their registered agents.

On 29 April 2011, we notified all registered agents of the need to have PI insurance cover, following the issue of an explanatory paper in December 2010, setting out the proposed requirement.

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Compliance framework

The first full year under the TASA has seen a significant number of complaints about agents reported to us. While the vast majority of these complaints were able to be resolved without the need for a formal investigation, we enquired into a number of matters where there were serious risks to consumers, and consequently terminated the registration of several agents who we found lacked fitness and propriety to be an agent.

We have developed an effective process for risk assessing and responding to complaints, including referrals of serious cases from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). This provides for a consistent approach to responding to complainants, working with agents, and escalating the more serious matters for further enquiry or investigation.

As part of this, we are developing our capabilities for collecting information and undertaking investigations while at all times observing natural justice requirements for agents. While we would expect that most compliance issues would be reported by consumers of tax agent services, we are taking a co-operative approach with the profession to promote compliance.

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Awareness and communication

While a level of awareness of the new regime has been achieved among tax practitioners during the year, more needs to be done, particularly in relation to knowledge of the registration requirements and the standards required of agents under the Code of Professional Conduct.

We also need to engage with the full range of entities providing tax agent services to bring them into the regulatory framework.

At a broader level, we aim to develop awareness among taxpayers generally that individuals and entities who provide tax agent or BAS services must be registered, and that when using a registered agent they can expect professional, accurate and consistent service.

As part of a two-stage overhaul of our website (www.tpb.gov.au), which is our primary channel for communication and transactions with clients, we began work on redesigning the homepage and high level navigation features to make the site easier to use.

The second phase of the redesign, planned for 2011–12, will involve redesigning the lower-level navigation, improving the search function and rewriting and adding content where necessary.

For the website, our priority in the start-up phase has been on making available accurate and detailed information on the evolving requirements for agent registration as well as basic tools for notification.

In the business as usual context, our aim is to make it easier for users to quickly and conveniently find the information they need and interact with the Board.

Through the year I have presented to a range of interested groups from across the tax and BAS agent profession. These speaking engagements have been useful in delivering our key messages and, just as important, getting feedback on what is happening at the practitioner level.

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Planning and governance

Much of the Board’s work is being undertaken through its committees.

Committees provide a responsive and flexible vehicle for making decisions, while providing a high level of assurance as to the quality of decision-making.

The Board’s committee structure harnesses the considerable specialist expertise of Board members, as well as external experts where necessary.

The Board has finalised a Strategic Plan for 2011 to 2013, which forms part of our internal governance mechanism and documents the Board’s business model and strategies.

An Audit and Risk Management Committee set up during the year is overseeing this aspect of the Board’s operations, including the implementation of rigorous processes to ensure high standards of governance.

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Finance

The Board’s resources are provided by the ATO to enable us to deliver the outcomes set in the Portfolio Budget Statement for the Treasury portfolio. The Commissioner of Taxation and I agree on the resources and budget required to deliver the Board’s outcomes.

The Board and the ATO signed a memorandum of understanding on 22 December 2010, setting out the principles and framework under which we will work together.

In line with the Commissioner’s commitment to provide all the necessary support for the Board, the ATO provided additional budget support ($3.3 million) during the year over and above the previously agreed allocation of $13,534,000.

I thank the Commissioner and his colleagues for their continuing support and flexibility in relation to the financial and other resources we need to operate effectively.

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Challenges for the year ahead

Registration

BAS agents who used the transitional notification option to register in the six months following 1 March 2010 should apply to renew their registration by 29 January 2012 if they want to continue to provide BAS services legally. A similar notification method of registration was also available for the first three months for entities providing tax agent services, and they will also need to apply to re-register by the same time.

About 85% of registered BAS agents used the notification method. One of the challenges for the Board is to renew the registration of this group. We have contacted these agents, encouraging them to lodge their application for renewal as soon as possible and beat the registration rush early next year.

Renewing BAS agents will need to meet certain requirements, including holding relevant qualifications and having relevant experience. A transitional renewal option is available for those BAS agents who do not yet meet these requirements.

Our intention is to operate a registration process, with the necessary information support, that will enable qualified BAS agents to renew effectively and efficiently. In 2011–12, the Board aims to process all new applications within one month of receiving an accurate and complete application where there are no issues requiring further consideration by a committee or the Board.

Regulatory developments

The Assistant Treasurer announced on 7 April 2010 that financial planners who provide tax services will be regulated in the future, through the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and with the Board under the TASA.

The Board is working closely with ASIC and Treasury to provide an effective registration process for this category of financial planners, ensuring that ASIC’s and our systems work together seamlessly. In consultation with ASIC and other stakeholders, we will also be developing the other necessary elements of the regulatory framework, including competency requirements.

Staffing

A legacy of the staffing arrangements inherited by the Board is that our staff are geographically dispersed. Among other constraints, this has limited opportunities for multi-skilling, and for making the best use of resources to cover the peaks and troughs inherent in much of our work, including registration.

Over the next two to three years the Board will move to consolidate its core functions, particularly registrations, in Hurstville NSW, to provide for the most effective and efficient operations.

IT systems

While the Board’s systems have been enhanced during the year, significant changes to our IT environment are needed to achieve the Board’s outcomes. The Board does not yet have its own independent IT system. The ATO has given us assurances of support to establish the functionality and capacity we need. As it is nearly 18 months since the Board commenced, this is a matter of some priority.

Settling in new legislation

Tax practitioners play an important role in the operation of an effective tax system for Australia. For example, registered tax agents currently lodge more than 70% of income tax returns for individuals and more than 95% of business tax returns. BAS service providers also play a critical role in preparing and lodging quarterly activity statements.

Regulating tax practitioners on a national basis through a single Board has been a positive step. The Board has a responsibility, in part, for the health of this profession and for effectively interpreting the TASA for registered agents and the public. With any new regulatory system, legislative fine-tuning is usually necessary to ensure the intent of the law is achieved. In overseeing the start-up of the new regime, we have applied a practical perspective to identify and seek improvements where there appear to be legislative anomalies that hinder the work of the Board, negatively impact agents or compromise consumer protection.

Reflecting on this point, I note that a number of legislative issues within the TASA have become apparent to the Board during the year. These relate to certain coverage questions, the powers of the Board in some respects, and some consumer protection issues. We continue to work with Treasury and the Government with the aim of having these matters addressed as soon as possible.

Board arrangements

During the year, one experienced Board member, Miriam Holmes, resigned due to other work commitments. However, we were fortunate that Yvonne Sneddon, an experienced accountant and corporate board member, was appointed to the Board.

I thank my fellow Board members and the Board’s staff for their dedication and efforts in bringing to life an effective and practical framework to protect consumers and assure the community that registered tax practitioners meet appropriate standards of professional and ethical conduct.

There is still much to be done, but as this report shows, solid foundations have been put in place.

Dale Boucher
Chair
Tax Practitioners Board

Snapshot
The tax profession

Australian taxpayers are served by around 37,000 registered tax agents and 17,000 registered BAS agents, including individuals, companies and partnerships.

They provide a wide range of tax agent services, from broad tax advice and tax return preparation to BAS services, and tax advice as part of other professional services.

Registered tax agents lodge more than 70% of income tax returns for individuals and more than 95% of business tax returns. BAS service providers play a critical role in preparing and lodging quarterly activity statements, while other specialists provide tax advice as part of services such as quantity surveying and providing advice to businesses on research and development tax concessions.

Individual agents account for 76% of tax agents and 78% of BAS agents. Around half are members of professional associations.

While almost four out of five tax agents are men, the figures are almost exactly reversed for BAS agents (see Figure 1.1).

The profession is heavily reliant on senior workers, with 55% of tax agents and 39% of BAS agents aged 50 years or older (see Figure 1.2).

In addition to registered tax agents, legal practitioners can provide tax advice without being registered as tax agents. However, if they also want to lodge tax returns on behalf of their clients they must be registered.

Figure 1.1 Tax agents and BAS agents (Individuals) by gender at 30 June 2011

Figure 1.2: Tax agents and BAS agents (Individuals) by age at 30 June 2011



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02 Overview of the Board and its role

Who we are and what we do

The Tax Practitioners Board is responsible for regulating tax agent services in Australia. As a statutory body reporting to the Assistant Treasurer, the Board is established under and administers the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA).

In broad terms, this means that the Board is responsible for the registration of tax agents, and business activity statement (BAS) agents, and for achieving broad compliance with the TASA, including the Code of Professional Conduct.

The Board’s focus is on promoting high professional and ethical standards, and protecting consumers of tax agent services.

Tax agent services are defined broadly as services, including advice, provided for a fee or other reward where it can reasonably be expected that the services will be relied on for tax purposes. Services provided by an employee or on an in-house basis (that is, by one part of an entity to another part of the same entity) are not tax agent services and are therefore not regulated by the TASA.

At 30 June 2011, the Board consisted of 11 members, appointed by the Assistant Treasurer in their personal capacities rather than as organisational representatives. Other than the Chair, members are part-time and include people with a background in tax, accounting, bookkeeping, law, academia and business (see 'Members of the Board').

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Legislative framework

The Board administers:

• Tax Agent Services Act 2009
  As the main Act, the TASA establishes the Tax Practitioners Board and provides for the registration and regulation of tax and BAS agents.

• Tax Agent Services Regulations 2009
  The regulations set out, among other things, the broad requirements for registration, including provisions for the recognition of professional associations, and registration and application fees payable.

• Tax Agent Services (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009
  The transitional Act deals with the consequential and transitional matters arising from the enactment of the TASA.

(Legislation is available at www.comlaw.gov.au)

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The Board’s powers

Under the TASA, the Board’s statutory functions include:

• administering the system for the registration of tax agents and BAS agents

• determining applications for registration

• investigating conduct that may breach the TASA, including non-compliance with the Code of Professional Conduct and breaches of the civil penalty provisions, and taking action against unregistered preparers

• imposing administrative sanctions for non-compliance with the Code of Professional Conduct, and

• issuing guidelines on relevant matters.

Under the legislation, all decisions must be made by the full Board or a committee, with any appellable decision to be made by the full Board or a committee of at least three Board members. The Board can also appoint people other than Board members to some committees, and in this way can delegate routine decision-making to staff of the Board while retaining full responsibility and maintaining proper assurance of the quality of decision making. Details of Board committees are included in Part 4 of this report.

As a part of its regulatory role, the Board is able to seek civil penalties through the Federal Court for specified conduct by registered agents and unregistered entities. For example, civil penalties may apply where an unregistered entity provides tax agent services for a fee, or where an agent knowingly or recklessly makes false or misleading statements.

Most decisions by the Board to impose administrative sanctions, as well as other Board decision-making, can be appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Federal Court (see 'Judicial and administrative tribunal decisions').

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Our values

The Board’s values (see Figure 2.1) promote the regulation of tax practitioners in a fair, consistent and practical way, with the aim of ensuring that registered tax agents meet appropriate standards of professional and ethical conduct, thereby protecting consumers.
 

Figure 2.1: The Board's values



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Business model

The Board’s business model shows how we align our resources and approaches to achieve the outcomes outlined by the TASA (see Figure 2.2).

Figure 2.2: The Board's business model

Figure 2.3: Roles

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Reporting arrangements

The Board’s annual report is prepared to meet the requirement under section 60-130 of the TASA for the Chair of the Board to give the Minister an annual report on the Board’s operations for presentation to Parliament.

The Board is not an agency for the purposes of the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997. In accordance with section 60-80 of the TASA, the ATO provides resources to enable the Board to meet its outcomes. The Commissioner of Taxation and the Chair of the Board (on behalf of the Board) are required to agree on the resources and budget needed to deliver the Board’s outcomes and for the Board to perform its functions and exercise its powers under the TASA.

Consistent with these arrangements, the Board’s financial operations are reported as part of the ATO’s financial operations in that agency’s annual report, and therefore this report does not include audited financial statements.

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Members of the Board

Board membership at 30 June 2011.

Dale Boucher PSM (Chair)

Dale Boucher was a solicitor and consultant in Canberra for several years, prior to his appointment in November 2009 as Chair of the Board.

He has extensive leadership experience, with a career spanning both the public and private sectors. Dale was the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Government Solicitor from 1997 to 1999 and held the office of the Australian Government Solicitor from 1993 to 1997, as well as other senior positions in the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department in earlier years. He was a partner with Minter Ellison Lawyers for three years from mid-1999. In addition to his appointment as Chair of the Tax Practitioners Board, he has also chaired audit committees for the ACT Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services and Comcare and was Chairperson of the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (Discipline) Tribunal, among other appointments.

Matthew Addison

Matthew Addison is currently the Executive Director of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers Ltd (ICB).

He has been instrumental in representing the bookkeeping profession during the consultation process on the tax agent services legislation, and is a member of the Australian Treasury Standard Business Reporting Advisory Forum. He is a member of the ATO BAS Agents Advisory Group. He is a registered tax agent as Managing Director and principal of Addisons Productivity Solutions, a consulting, bookkeeping, accounting software (MYOB Certified Consultant) support business. He takes an active role in professional (agents, bookkeepers and consultants) education, seminars and training.

Cynthia Coleman

Professor Cynthia Coleman is an adjunct professor of Taxation Law, Faculty of Law, University of Sydney.

She is the editor of Australian Tax Forum, which specialises in tax policy, and also holds positions as an editorial board member of other tax and commercial law journals. She is a governor of the Australian Tax Research Foundation. She is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and admitted to practice in the High Court. She has been involved with professional bodies such as the Tax Institute and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in both technical and educational roles. She has also been a community representative for the Australian Taxation Office’s quality assurance program. Tax administration is her major research interest.

Gordon Cooper AM

Professor Gordon Cooper is a registered tax agent and the Principal of Cooper & Co Chartered Accountants, a Sydney-based specialist tax consulting firm.

He is also a principal of Cooper & Collins (Central Coast) Pty Ltd, a NSW Central Coast firm of chartered accountants which specialises in the audit of self-managed superannuation funds. In addition he is a visiting professorial fellow at the Australian School of Taxation at the University of New South Wales.

His previous roles include President of the Tax Institute of Australia and a governor of the Tax Research Foundation.

Current positions include: Chairman of the Australian Branch of the International Fiscal Association, Chairman of the Australasian Branch of the UK Chartered Institute of Taxation, Patron of the Australasian Tax Teachers Association and Chair of the Challis Taxation Discussion Group.

He was a member of the NSW Tax Agents’ Board and has been involved in the development of the new tax agent services legislation since 1992. In recognition of his services to the tax profession and to the community, he was awarded membership of the Order of Australia in the 2003 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Roger Cotton

Roger Cotton has extensive management and leadership experience.

He has held a series of senior management roles including Chief Executive Officer of the National Institute of Accountants from 2001 to 2009. He was also the founding CEO of the Australian Association of Accounting Technicians, and a director from 2006 to 2009. He is the current Chairman of InterPrac Financial Services Limited, Immediate Past Chairman of Southern Rocklobster Limited and a past director of the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia. His advisory roles include being a member of the Financial Reporting Panel and his recent appointment to the Board of Governors of Braemar College in Victoria.

Christopher M Doogan AM

Chris Doogan is Chairman of a public company financial institution, Community CPS Australia Limited, which has a wholly owned subsidiary providing accounting, taxation and financial planning services.

He was formerly Chairman of a health insurance company, Australian Health Management Group Limited, and Chairman of Law Courts Limited (a company owned by the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of New South Wales). He is currently a director of the Centre for Customs and Excise Studies, an adjunct professor of law, the Principal Member of the Commonwealth Statutory Fishing Rights Allocation Review Panel, a member of the ACT Legal Practitioners Admission Board and a member of the ACT Rugby Judiciary. He is a barrister and solicitor and holds degrees in administration and law (honours), is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management, a Fellow of the Australasian Mutuals Institute, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a past Defence Fellow and the independent chairman of two court audit committees and a member of a third. He formerly performed a number of CEO roles in both the public and private sectors and has extensive experience as a director on numerous company boards over the last twenty-five years.

Michael Evans

Michael Evans is a senior fellow of the University of Melbourne where he conducts GST principles and advanced comparative value-added tax subjects in the university’s Masters level tax courses.

He is Chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia’s indirect taxes committee and a member of:

• the expert advisory panel of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China to assist the VAT Reform project established by the Legislative Affairs Department and Ministry of Finance

• the Australian Board of Taxation Advisory Committee and TIES working group

• the Australian Taxation Office’s National Tax Liaison Group, GST subcommittee

• the Australian Taxation Office’s Public Rulings Panel

• the Institute of Chartered Accountants indirect taxes committee

• the ITIC group engaged to provide tax reform advice to the State of Qatar.

Prior to his retirement Michael served more than 20 years as a partner of KPMG specialising in both direct and indirect taxes.

While a partner with KPMG and previously during a 17 year career with the Australian Taxation Office, he also contributed to the drafting and design of both corporate and value added tax systems in Australia, New Zealand and China.

George Fox

George Fox is currently a solicitor and holds a number of senior advisory roles including chairing the Dispute Management Foundation and University of Southern Queensland’s board governance committee.

Other leadership positions have included Law Reform Commissioner in Fiji, President of the Queensland Law Society and Chair of the Queensland Tax Agents’ Board. As a practicing mediator and academic, he has been helping to shape mediation law in Australia and abroad. He is an adjunct professor at Murdoch University and the University of Southern Queensland. 

Dale Pinto

Professor Dale Pinto is Professor of Taxation Law and the Head of the Taxation Department at the School of Business Law and Taxation at Curtin University.

Dale has been a member of CPA Australia’s Centre of Tax Excellence and is currently the Chair of the Tax Institute’s Education, Examinations and Quality Assurance Board (EEQAB). He is the author/co-author of numerous books, refereed articles and national and international conference papers, and is on the editorial board of a number of journals as well as being editor-in-chief of several refereed journals, including the Journal of the Australasian Tax Teachers’ Association. He is also a registered tax agent and in 2011 was invited to join the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Tax Reform Industry Working Group as well as the Board of Taxation’s Advisory Panel for an initial term to 31 December 2011. 

Russell Smith

Russell Smith is a registered BAS agent and is the Managing Director and Principal Accountant at Carruss Consultants.

He chaired the Bookkeeping Industry Group, is a member of the BAS Agent Advisory Group and a member of various bookkeeping forums. He has long been involved in the development of the tax agent services regime, representing the interests of bookkeepers and potential BAS agents in the consultation process. He takes an active interest in professional education and leads a wide range of advisory groups, seminars, workshops and training sessions. 

Yvonne Sneddon

Ms Yvonne Sneddon is a professional non-executive director with 15 years experience as a board member in both the private and public sectors.

She is a Fellow of the Institute of Company Directors. Yvonne is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants, with over 25 years experience providing financial services and business advice to both public and private sector clients.

Yvonne was a partner at Deloitte and before that a partner at Ferrier Hodgson. She was a registered tax agent for more than 10 years. She left private practice in 2004 to focus on her career as a professional company director.

Among her appointments, Yvonne is a member of the boards of Sage Group Ltd, Sage Automation Pty Ltd, South Australian Financing Authority, Motor Accident Commission and Rural Solutions. She is also the Chair of Flinders Reproductive Medicine Pty Ltd.

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Operations and organisational structure

Under arrangements consistent with the TASA, the ATO provides administrative support to the Board, including staffing, accommodation and financial and other systems.

The Board and the ATO signed a memorandum of understanding on 22 December 2010, setting out the principles and administrative framework under which they will work together.

The Board is assisted by a Secretary and a small number of staff, who are employees of the ATO but work to support the Board. There are approximately 140 ATO staff who provide administrative support for the Board. The ATO also provided a total budget of $16,834,000 for the reporting period.

The Board’s staffing structure comprises the following functional streams:

• Regulatory Assurance – provides assurance of compliance by tax practitioners with all the provisions of the TASA, including the Code of Professional Conduct, registration requirements and compliance with sanctions imposed by the Board.

• Registrations – processes applications for new registrations and renewals, including reviewing applications and undertaking compliance checks in relation to qualifications and experience; provides services and information to tax and BAS agents on registration requirements; and maintains the public register of agents.

• Legal Services – provides comprehensive legal advice and support to the Board, including legal assurance of secretariat processes and outputs, case management of Board litigation matters, drafting of responses to ministerial and FOI queries, and legislative training of Board staff as required.

• IT and Communications:

  • develops, implements and operates the systems used by the Board for registration and other support functions, including online forms and other tools for external users

  • provides a broad range of communication activities (using the Board’s website, advertising, community relations and the media) to raise community awareness of the regime and its objectives, to inform and educate tax practitioners about their obligations, and to consult with audiences to ensure that we maintain a user-centred focus.

• Secretariat – provides administrative support for meetings of the Board and committees including action items arising from meetings; manages workforce planning and recruitment and other human resource matters.

The Secretary

Mark Maskell

Mark Maskell is the Secretary of the Tax Practitioners Board, appointed to the role in April 2010. Mark has over 25 years experience working in and for the Federal Government. Since joining the ATO in February 2009 he has led the administrative and system design for the ATO’s systems, particularly in relation to new government measures, and sponsored the ATO’s community engagement with the software developer industry.

Before joining the ATO, Mark spent five years with Oakton Consulting, where he led their assurance and information management practices. He has also held senior roles in the Australian Customs Service, CSC Australia, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Department of Finance and Deregulation.

Figure 2.4: Board organisational structure

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03 Performance and achievements

Program and outcome framework

For the purpose of reporting under the Government’s Portfolio Budget Statements framework, the work of the Board constitutes a program of the ATO (Program 1.2).

Objective

The objective of the Tax Practitioners Board is to strengthen the integrity of the taxation system and tax profession by including all tax practitioners in a single national regulatory regime and regulating them fairly, consistently and practically.

The Board provides protection to clients of tax practitioner services by reducing the level of uncertainty and risks for people through a new, national, independent regulatory regime for tax agent services.

Deliverables

• Register tax practitioners

• Ensure that records are current and accurate

• Cancel the registrations of tax practitioners that are no longer active or entitled to be registered

• Administer the Code of Professional Conduct that clearly provides high standards and expectations for professionals providing tax agent services

• Apply consistent sanctions for those who do not comply with the law, including unregistered preparers, by seeking civil penalties, injunctions and other sanctions from the courts

• Fairly investigate referrals from the community and ATO

• Provide the community with access to public data to assist in verifying registered tax practitioners

• Manage and promote the role and functions of the Board

Key performance indicators

• Establish and broaden the regulatory framework across tax practitioners

• Maintain acceptable service standards

• Work cooperatively with tax practitioners

• Reduce risks for consumers in using tax practitioners

• Increase awareness and engagement amongst tax practitioners

Outcomes against key performance indicators

Establish and broaden the regulatory framework across tax practitioners

Under the TASA, entities providing a tax agent service for a fee or other reward must be registered. This covers not only the traditional role of tax agents but also BAS agents and those who provide services with a tax advice element, such as quantity surveyors.

Establishing a new national registration system

The Board has implemented a national registration system designed to ensure tax agents have the necessary qualifications and other attributes to provide services in accordance with appropriate professional and ethical standards. The registration system helps to minimise compliance costs on practitioners, and in turn for taxpayers.

In accordance with the TASA, the registration system includes simplified registration options during the transitional period, to ensure tax and BAS agents can continue their day to day operations without disruption.

The ongoing eligibility requirements for registration, set out in regulations under the TASA, include:

• being a fit and proper person

• demonstrating certain levels of relevant experience

• holding certain qualifications, including educational qualifications or membership of a recognised professional association. 

Details of the requirements and other aspects of the regulatory framework are set out in a series of explanatory papers and information sheets. In developing and documenting the detailed requirements for registration, the Board has where possible set out its preliminary views in exposure drafts, inviting feedback from stakeholders. After appropriate consultation, the papers and information sheets are published in final form.

Fit and proper person test

During the year the Board published its interpretation of the fitness and propriety requirements (in subdivision 20-A of the TASA) in an explanatory paper, TPB (EP) 02/2010: Fit and proper person. The paper was finalised taking into account comments from stakeholders on an exposure draft, released in April 2010.

Education

The Board issued the following proposed guidelines in December 2010 on courses that would satisfy the educational requirements for registration as a tax agent:

• TPB (PG) 01/2010: Course in basic accountancy principles approved by the Board

• TPB (PG) 02/2010: Course in commercial law approved by the Board

• TPB (PG) 03/2010: Course in Australian taxation law approved by the Board.

For each proposed guideline, the Board had previously issued exposure drafts to enable stakeholders to comment on the Board’s preliminary views.

When finalised and tabled in Parliament, such guidelines will be binding on the Board and the other parties to whom they apply. In the meantime, the Board intends to follow the proposed guidelines, but it may be prepared to consider alternative outcomes in special circumstances.

The Board also released the following information papers:

• TPB(I) 04-2011: BAS agent educational qualification requirements, May 2011

• TPB(I) 05-2011: Information regarding the assessment aspect and requirements of an approved course in basic GST/BAS taxation principles, May 2011 (previously released in the form of an exposure draft in December 2010)

• TPB(I) 07-2011: Approval process for courses which are referred to in Schedule 2 of the Tax Agent Services Regulations 2009, May 2011 (previously released in the form of an exposure draft in December 2010).

The Board also issued a further draft of an information sheet, TPB(I) 05-2011 Course in basic GST/BAS taxation principles that is approved by the Board, in September 2010.

After extensive consultations and consideration, the Board found it difficult to identify any existing courses that would, taken alone, comprehensively satisfy all of the requirements for Board approved courses, in particular for tax agents. As a result, the Board has adopted a ‘mix and match’ approach, under which an applicant for registration can complete a selection of subjects or units from different courses, which, taken together, will satisfy the requirements of a Board approved course. This approach is set out in an information paper, TPB(I) 06-2011: Educational qualification requirements for tax agents and BAS agents – the mix and match approach to Board approved courses.

Addressing the gap in the educational market, the Tax Institute and the University of Southern Queensland have both developed courses in Australian taxation law specially designed to meet the Board’s requirements. These two courses were approved by the Board on 30 June 2011, becoming the first ever courses specifically designed to meet the requirements for Board approved courses. Details of these courses and any other approved courses will be published on our qualifications register in 2011–12.

To help education providers design courses that will meet the Board’s requirements, a recognised course providers framework has been developed, setting out the policy that the Board will apply to recognise those entities (in addition to tertiary institutions and registered training organisations) that will be able to offer Board approved courses. 

Educational requirements for registration – at a glance

To meet the educational qualification requirements for registration as a tax agent, you must have a recognised tertiary qualification and, depending on the nature of that qualification, have completed a Board approved course in Australian taxation law, commercial law and basic accountancy principles. (Different requirements apply to people relying on professional association membership rather than educational qualifications.)

Given the lack of courses that on their own meet its requirements (which specify period of study as well as content and assessment criteria), the Board has adopted a ‘mix and match’ approach under which you can complete a selection of subjects or units from different courses, which, taken together, will satisfy the requirements of a Board approved course.

As an interim measure, the Board is offering a qualifications advice service, which enables prospective applicants to seek its advice on the eligibility of their existing qualifications, or courses they are proposing to undertake.

To meet the requirements for registration as a BAS agent, you must hold at least a Certificate IV Financial Services (Bookkeeping) or Financial Services (Accounting) from a registered training organisation or equivalent institution and have completed a Board approved course in basic GST/BAS taxation principles – though such a course may be taken as part of the certificate, as follows:

• As an interim measure, for applications lodged up to 29 February 2012, the BAS unit ‘Carry out Business Activity and Instalment Activity Statements tasks’ in the above certificates will be accepted as a Board approved course in basic GST/BAS taxation principles, provided that assessment in the course is not solely based on recognition of prior learning without some form of independent formal assessment and testing.

• For applications (including renewals) lodged from 1 March 2012, applicants will need to have taken both the above unit and the unit ‘Establish and maintain a payroll system’ as part of the certificate to meet the requirement to have completed a Board approved course in basic GST/BAS taxation principles.

Professional indemnity insurance

During the year the Board consulted widely on implementing a professional indemnity (PI) insurance requirement for registered agents to ensure that consumers are appropriately protected from loss due to an act, error or omission by an agent. This type of insurance also better protects agents if professional negligence claims are made against them, providing the financial backup to compensate clients in certain situations.

On 29 April 2011, we notified all registered agents of the need to have PI insurance cover from 1 July 2011. This followed the release of an explanatory paper TPB (EP) 03/2010: Professional indemnity insurance in December 2010. The paper had originally been issued in the form of an exposure draft.

Registered agents must have PI insurance that meets the Board’s requirements except in a limited number of circumstances, such as where they are already covered by their employer, or where they do not charge a fee for their services.

Having PI insurance coverage will be an ongoing requirement under the Code of Professional Conduct for registered agents, but the Board will consider applications for exemption in special circumstances.

Registered agents should notify the Board of the details of their PI insurance cover (and an online form is available for this). More than 60% of registered agents had lodged this by the notification deadline of 30 June 2011, with more notifications being received in the following weeks.

The Board is following up with the remaining agents who did not notify of their PI insurance cover details.

Other regulatory initiatives

The Board released an explanatory paper TPB (EP) 01/2010: Code of Professional Conduct in December 2010 to provide a detailed explanation of the Board’s interpretation of the Code. The paper translates the provisions in Division 30 of the TASA into practical principles that can be applied by the profession.

The paper had previously been released in the form of an exposure draft in April 2010.

Under the Code of Professional Conduct, all registered agents must deliver tax and BAS services competently, and continuing professional education (CPE) is one way in which agents can maintain and demonstrate their competence. Following consultation with professional bodies and focus group discussions with practitioners, the Board has developed an exposure draft paper on its proposed CPE requirement.

Other regulatory papers released during the year included:

• TPB(I) 01-2011: Letters of engagement, April 2011 (previously issued in the form of an exposure draft in September 2010)

• TPB(I) 02-2011: Claiming a lien over client property, April 2011 (previously issued in the form of an exposure draft in September 2010). 

Recognised professional associations

Under the regulations, the Board may officially recognise a professional association for the purpose of accepting voting membership of it as a criterion for registration as a tax agent or BAS agent. In recognising a professional association, the Board needs to be assured that the association has adequate corporate governance arrangements and appropriate professional and ethical standards for its members.

A further three professional associations were officially recognised during the year, bringing the number of such associations to 11 – some having dual recognition (see Table 3.1).

Table 3.1: Professional associations officially recognised by the Board at 30 June 2011

 

Association	Type of recognition	Date of accreditation
Association of Accounting Technicians (Australia) Limited	BAS agent association	5 May 2010
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants Australia and New Zealand	Tax agent association BAS agent association	12 May 2010
Association of Taxation and Management Accountants	Tax agent association	24 June 2010
Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors	Tax agent association	26 August 2010
CPA Australia	Tax agent association BAS agent association	31 May 2010
Institute of Certified Bookkeepers	BAS agent association	5 May 2010
Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia	Tax agent association BAS agent association	12 May 2010
Institute of Public Accountants Tax agent association	BAS agent association	5 May 2010
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Australasia	Tax agent association	30 August 2010
Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals Association	Tax agent association	10 September 2010
The Tax Institute	Tax agent association	5 May 2010

Maintain acceptable service standards

The Board is seeking to achieve the following service standards:

• Registrations:

  • New tax agent and BAS agent applications – process complete and accurate applications and notify applicants within one month of receipt.

  • Renewal applications – process complete applications and notify applicants within three months of receipt. This takes into account the need to renew over 15,000 BAS agent applications due in March 2012.

• Responses – Provide an initial response or acknowledgment to an enquiry or application within seven working days of receipt, to be achieved 90% of the time.

• Complaints – Resolve on average 60% of complaints within 28 days. More complex issues or those that require further clarification of the facts will generally take longer to resolve, particularly where a formal investigation may be warranted.

Registrations

The Board has dealt with the initial surge in applications for registration, which came particularly from BAS service providers who were not previously required to register.

The Board began the 2010–11 year with 7,947 applications awaiting processing. During 2010–11 we received a further 23,718 applications and finalised 28,861.

In addition, the Board received 6,786 renewal applications from tax agents previously registered, finalising 6,447 during the year.

Table 3.2 provides a breakdown of registration applications during the year.

We are continually refining our procedures to improve application processing times. Our goal is to advise applicants of the outcome within one month of obtaining all required documentation.

Measures taken during the year to improve the registration process for agents and shorten processing times included:

• improving existing online forms and developing new ones – specifically we replaced PDF format forms (which had to be downloaded, completed and lodged on paper) with an interactive on-line registration process

• giving managers the delegated authority from the Board to approve applications that clearly meet the eligibility requirements

• developing and trialling a quality assurance process for our registration work

• implementing new processes to ensure early contact is made with applicants who have submitted an incomplete application.

 Table 3.2: Registration applications received and processed, 2010–11

Category	Awaiting finalisation at 1 July 2010	Received	Finalised	Awaiting finalisation at 30 June 2011
TAX AGENT
New applications	1,057	3,438	3,914	581
New notifications	1,124	0	1,124	0
New transitional applications	201	748	949	0
Renewals	1,481	6,786	6,447	1,820
3 year renewals	1,556	0	1,556	0
TOTAL TAX AGENT	5,419	10,972	13,990	2,401
BAS AGENT
New applications	671	782	1289	164
New notifications	1,566	10,528	12094	0
New transitional applications	291	1,332	1488	135
Renewals	0	104	0	104
TOTAL BAS AGENT	2,528	12,746	14,871	403
TOTAL	7,947	23,718	28,861	2,804

 

Of the applications for registration finalised during the year, the Board rejected 45 applications from tax agents and 25 from BAS agents on a variety of grounds (see Table 3.3).

 

Table 3.3: Registration applications rejected, 2010–11
 

Reason for rejection	Tax agents	BAS agents	Total
Liquidation/insolvency	3	0	3
Competency	10	12	22
Fit and proper person criteria	9	2	11
Qualifications	12	8	20
Relevant experience	11	3	14
TOTAL	45	25	70

Table 3.4 shows the number of active registrations in each state and territory at 30 June 2011.

Table 3.4: Active registrations at 30 June 2011

State/territory	Tax agents	BAS agents	Total
ACT	474	245	719
NSW	13,709	5,134	18,843
NT	202	182	384
QLD	5,866	3,972	9,838
SA	2,317	956	3,273
TAS	489	320	809
VIC	10,702	4,261	14,963
WA	3,664	1,916	5,580
Overseas	12	4	16
TOTAL	37,435	16,990	54,425

The figure for tax agents includes those who have had one or more conditions placed on their registration to limit the type of tax agent services they can provide. Conditional registration enables professionals in other disciplines, such as research and development consultants and quantity surveyors, to provide a limited scope of tax advice as part of their professional services (see Figure 3.1).

Figure 3.1: Tax agents with conditional registration at 30 June 2011 

Enquiry management

Telephony, accounting for 65% of all contacts during the reporting period, has been the major way for people to contact the Board, which answered approximately 53,000 telephone enquiries during the year. Electronic and paper correspondence accounted for 27% and 8% respectively.

We continue to promote the use of electronic channels, particularly the website, for tax practitioners and members of the public to deal with the Board.

About 67% of enquiries related to registration, and of these 74% related to new registrations of tax and BAS agents.

The Board’s website (www.tpb.gov.au) received almost half a million visits during the year (see Figure 3.2).

The average length of time that a user spends on the website is consistently around seven minutes, indicating that users are coming to the site and staying to read or use the tools available. This suggests that the website is hitting the mark for users, in that visits overwhelmingly represent active users rather than casual or accidental visitors.

The top five content pages on the website in order of use are:

1. Register of registered and deregistered tax agents and BAS agents (consistently the most popular content page since the website’s launch in 2009)

2. Online renewal form

3. BAS notification form

4. Online registration form

5. Update details form

Figure 3.2: Visits to Board website, 2010–11

Work cooperatively with tax practitioners

In setting the registration and other regulatory requirements for tax and BAS agents, the Board has consulted closely with the tax profession and other stakeholders, including the education sector.

The Board has issued a series of exposure drafts setting out its preliminary views on proposed registration and regulatory requirements. Professional bodies and other stakeholders have been encouraged to provide feedback on these drafts, and their comments are carefully considered in finalising the requirements.

Ongoing consultation with the profession has been embedded through the Tax Practitioners Board Consultative Forum, with representatives from 13 professional associations. This forum was established in the lead up to the TASA taking effect.

The forum held four meetings during the year, discussing issues ranging from the development of policy on registration and professional conduct to operational matters including the processing of registration applications. The reports of forum meetings are publicly available on the Board’s website. 

Continuing education policy built on consultation

The development of policy on continuing professional education (CPE) demonstrates the Board’s consultative approach to policy making.

While the Board’s starting position was that CPE is essential to maintain the knowledge and skills necessary for a tax or BAS agent to deliver services competently (a requirement of the Code of Professional Conduct), it resolved to test the practicalities of this through multi-layered consultation with agents.

This has involved consultation with professional associations on a draft platform paper, focus group discussions with practitioners, and release of an exposure draft of an explanatory paper.

Recognised tax and BAS agent associations, members of the Board’s Consultative Forum and the ATO were invited to comment on a draft platform paper, issued by the Board in April 2011, setting out its preliminary policy position on CPE. As well as wanting feedback on its preliminary views, the Board was keen to elicit the insights of the associations in relation to their own activities in CPE.

Focus group discussions were also held in major cities in May and June 2011 with BAS agents who were not members of a recognised tax or BAS agent association. The aim was to understand the availability and utilisation of CPE, as well as agents’ views on CPE.

Participants recognised the need to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. Most currently participate in some form of CPE, although there is limited availability of CPE activities for BAS agents. The participants considered that 15 hours of relevant CPE per year would be a reasonable expectation for BAS agents and that CPE must be affordable and accessible. Furthermore, the Board would need to provide clear information on its CPE expectations.

Following consideration of submissions on the platform paper and the focus group outcomes, the Board has now articulated its proposed policy in an exposure draft of an explanatory paper. Taking into account any further feedback, the Board will finalise its policy and issue an explanatory paper in final form during 2011–12.

Reduce risks for consumers in using tax practitioners

Protecting consumers is central to the tax agent services regime and the Board’s purpose.

This is achieved through requiring agents to be registered and setting and enforcing standards to ensure that agents have the necessary competence and personal attributes.

The Board has also taken steps to raise broad community awareness of the requirement for providers of tax agent services to be registered, and it maintains a searchable online register of registered and deregistered agents so that consumers can check they are using a registered agent.

The Board has also adopted a policy that from 1 July 2011 registered tax agents and BAS agents should have professional indemnity insurance cover.

Complaints referred to the Board

The first full year under the new Act has seen a significant number of complaints about agents being reported to the Board. We have developed an effective process for risk assessing and responding to complaints. This provides for a consistent approach to responding to complainants, while working with agents, and escalating the more serious matters for further enquiry or investigation.

Risk management processes for complaints

The Board takes a risk-based approach to dealing with complaints. While all matters are looked into, our focus is on prioritising and allocating resources to the highest risk cases, particularly those that impact on consumers, while also ensuring appropriate responses to lower risk cases.

Applying this risk-based approach to compliance involves:

• working with key stakeholders such as the ATO and professional associations to understand areas of risk

• using intelligence to build consumer risk profiles for different groups of agents

• continually reviewing compliance risks and priorities to ensure the most effective allocation of the Board’s resources.

Complaints are categorised as low, medium or high risk:

• Low risk – the complaint is likely to result in early resolution through conciliation or education of the parties as to the law and their obligations; 68% of complaints were resolved in this way.

• Medium risk – the complaint requires the Board to make more extensive enquires, as the nature of the alleged behaviour could lead to a sanction, there are consumer protection matters involved and there may be a history of complaints.

• High risk – the conduct complained about is highly likely to result in a sanction, whether it be suspension, termination of registration or the commencement of civil proceedings.

Where the enquiries confirm a potential breach of the Professional Code of Conduct, a delegate of the Board may decide to proceed to an investigation, the result of which may be referred to a Board committee for a determination as to whether there has been a breach and what sanction should be imposed. 

Number and types of complaints

During the year, the Board received 2,441 complaints of alleged misconduct or breaches of the TASA, mainly related to:

• fee disputes

• mishandling refunds or using trust monies

• holding onto documents after work had been completed

• failure to lodge tax returns

• lodging false or incompetently prepared returns

• tax agent services advice provided by unregistered entities.

The Board receives complaints about practitioner conduct from a variety of sources but mainly from the general public (65%) and the agent community (11%). We also work with other agencies such as the ATO to identify potential breaches of the TASA. In 2010–11, the ATO referred 141 matters to the Board of which 77 related to tax agents, 2 related to BAS agents and 62 related to unregistered entities.

We aim to deal with complaints as quickly as possible, subject to the need to resolve them effectively and to apply principles of natural justice. In 2010–11, 71% of all complaints were finalised to the satisfaction of all parties within 100 days of receipt. At the end of the reporting period approximately 17% of complaints received were carried over into the 2011–12 financial year.

The Board undertook 11 investigations during 2010–11, of which:

• two resulted in the agents’ registrations being terminated under section 251K(2) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936

• four resulted in the agents’ registrations being terminated under section 40 of the TASA

• one ended as a consequence of the Board allowing an agent’s re-registration to expire

• four were finalised with no further action required.

While there were no investigations in progress at 30 June 2011, the Board was actively conducting 155 preliminary enquiries into conduct-related matters.

In some cases, the Board’s decision to terminate registration has been appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Monitoring matters in other jurisdictions that indicate possible breaches of the TASA

As well as responding promptly to complaints, the Board monitors public reports of matters that may have an implication for compliance with the TASA, including the outcomes of civil and criminal proceedings, professional body disciplinary processes, public statements by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and other agencies, and reported bankruptcies.

The Board will take appropriate action where such reports indicate conduct that may constitute a breach of the registration requirements or of the Code of Professional Conduct.

For example, a registered agent was convicted and imprisoned for stealing from his clients following a police investigation. Having monitored the case while it was under way, the Board contacted the agent once judgement was handed down and required him to show cause why his registration should not be cancelled. In the absence of a response, the Board terminated the agent’s registration in April 2011.

Making a complaint

Where practitioners fail to comply with the Code of Professional Conduct, the registration requirements or other provisions of the TASA, the Board has available a range of disciplinary responses, including administrative sanctions. The Board may also apply to the Federal Court to impose a pecuniary penalty, or may seek an injunction to prevent or compel someone to do something.

Consumers and practitioners can make complaints to the Board about possible breaches of the TASA by registered agents or unregistered preparers by completing the complaints form (Complaint against a tax agent or BAS agent) available on the Boards website (www.tpb.gov.au) and posting it to:

Tax Practitioners Board
PO Box 9825
PENRITH NSW 2740

Complaints can also be made by phoning 1300 362 829 or by emailing the Board at enquirymanagement@tpb.gov.au

Compliance education

The Board works with the community and practitioners to resolve issues and provide consumer protection. Often this involves a co-operative approach, with the agents showing a willingness to do the right thing. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by the following cases during 2010–11:

• A website offered services to non-residents such as backpackers, who were asked to sign a power of attorney. On examination, the Board concluded that the power of attorney instrument contained provisions that may have breached the Code of Professional Conduct requirements relating to money or other property held on trust. After discussion, the agent responded to the Board’s concerns by making changes to its website and power of attorney document, which satisfactorily resolved the matter, and no further action was necessary.

• Following some 30 consumer complaints about delayed tax refunds, the Board contacted the agent involved and his legal representative to raise concerns about practice management, after which the agent surrendered his registration.

• The ATO referred to the Board a case involving a company not registered as a tax agent that was advertising via a website a service to expedite the registration process for an Australian Business Number for a fee. After being contacted by the Board, the company claimed it was unaware of a TASA breach, but immediately changed its website advertising. It subsequently registered as a tax agent.

• A quantity surveyor who was not registered as a tax agent was advertising tax depreciation schedules on a website. On receiving a complaint from another quantity surveyor, the Board contacted the unregistered quantity surveyor, advising them that advertising of this service appeared to constitute a breach of the TASA and should cease. In response, the quantity surveyor said they would no longer provide such a service and stopped advertising it.

• On its website, a real estate firm advertised tax depreciation advice in conjunction with another entity. The offering appeared to constitute a tax agent service, despite the firm not being registered as a tax agent. When this was brought to its attention by the Board, the firm immediately rectified the issue and sought assistance to prevent any further potential breaches of the TASA. The Board was able to accept the firm’s assurances that there would not be any repetition of the conduct.

Increase awareness and engagement amongst tax practitioners

The volume of registration applications (including new applications from practitioners previously outside the regulatory system) and professional indemnity insurance notifications indicates that there is a broad level of awareness of the regulatory basics.

The Board has undertaken a communication program to raise awareness among tax practitioners of their obligations under the regulatory framework, particularly in relation to registration options (see ‘Communications’).

The Board’s Chair has presented to a range of professional groups, delivering key messages on the scope of the regime and key requirements such as professional indemnity insurance and educational qualifications. 

Evolving policies on professional conduct and practice

The Board’s focus during the start-up phase of the tax agent services regime was on setting up the registration system including determining the eligibility criteria for registration as a tax agent or BAS agent.

As it continues the process of settling and implementing the tax agent services regime, the Board is increasingly looking to articulate and communicate the obligations on agents imposed by the Code of Professional Conduct. During 2010–11, the Board addressed the following specific issues:

• Potential impact of outsourcing or offshoring – The use by tax agents of third parties or offshore operations to undertake elements of the services they provide to clients raises questions concerning compliance with the Code of Professional Conduct. Agents using or contemplating such arrangements need to consider the extent to which they may impact on their ability to supervise the work and ensure that clients are aware of and give permission for third parties to have access to their information (see speech by the Chair of the Board at the 26th National Convention of the Taxation Institute of Australia in Brisbane on 3 March 2011 at www.tpb.gov.au).

• Letters of engagement – The Board released its guidance to tax practitioners on letters of engagement, which the Board believes are an effective means of ensuring that the client understands the services and costs involved, reducing the chances of disputes or misunderstandings (see information sheet TPB(l) 01-2011: Letters of engagement).

• Tax refunds – The Board has determined that tax refunds should generally be passed onto clients within 14 days (unless there is an exceptional circumstance or some agreement between the agent and their client to the contrary).

• Retention of client property – The Board provided its view on the circumstances where a tax agent can retain (lien) a clients property (see information sheet TPB(I) 02-2011: Claiming a lien over client property).

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Enabling functions

Communications

As part of a two-stage overhaul of the Board’s website (www.tpb.gov.au), the homepage and high level navigation features were redesigned during the year to make the site easier to use.

New features include highlighting new information in banner and quick link formats, registration decision flowcharts and an online form for agents to notify the Board of the details of their professional indemnity insurance cover. The second phase of the redesign, planned for 2011–12, will involve redesigning the lower-level navigation, improving the search function and auditing and rewriting the content where necessary.

The aim is to provide users (primarily tax agents and BAS agents, but also their clients and other stakeholders) with ready access to up-to-date and accurate information and easy to use transaction tools.

The website is the Board’s primary channel for communication and transactions with practitioners and other stakeholders. To date, our priority has been on making available detailed and accurate information on registration requirements as well as basic tools for notification.

The Board’s aim is to make it easier for users to quickly and conveniently find the information they need and to interact easily with the Board.

The redesign has been informed by ongoing user research.

Other communication and education activities during the year included communication support for:

• raising awareness among BAS agents of registration renewal options

• implementing a requirement for agents to have professional indemnity insurance and to notify the Board of their relevant insurance arrangements

• management of agent registration renewals

• consultations with stakeholders on issues affecting agents, such as the Board’s proposed policy on continuing professional education

• raising awareness among taxpayers of the need to use a registered tax agent rather than an unregistered entity to prepare tax returns, through media coverage, particularly in regional areas, and working with the ATO to include messages in its communication activities, particularly at tax time.

Technology and systems

Further enhancements were made to the Board’s end to end registration system, iMIS, during the year, including support for online notification of professional indemnity insurance coverage and deployment of the case management module for managing complaints.

For this core business system, the Board’s objective is to deploy an end-to-end electronic solution that will enable tax agents and BAS agents to conduct their routine interactions, such as registration and updating of their records, on a fully self-service basis.

While the Board’s systems have been significantly enhanced during the year, significant changes to our IT environment are needed to achieve the Board’s outcomes. The ATO has given us assurances of support to put in place the functionality and capacity we need by the end of 2011–12.

Benefits of using a registered agent

Taxpayers who use the services of a registered tax agent get the benefit of a range of protections under the tax agent services regime or under legislation administered by the ATO:

• They can be confident that the services will meet accepted professional and ethical standards and support compliance with tax law.

• Tax agents and BAS agents must have professional indemnity insurance from 1 July 2011, protecting their clients in cases of negligence.

• Clients of registered tax agents and BAS agents also get the benefit of a safe harbour from certain penalties when an error or late lodgement is due to carelessness by the tax agent rather than the taxpayer, under provisions administered by the ATO.

• Taxpayers who use a registered agent to lodge their tax returns also get the benefit of more flexible lodgement deadlines from the ATO.

To check they are using a registered agent, consumers can use a searchable online register of registered and deregistered agents on the Board’s website (www.tpb.gov.au). This has consistently been the most popular content page on the website since it was launched in 2009.

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Financial operations

The Board is not an agency for the purposes of the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997. In accordance with section 60-80 of the Act, the Board’s resources are provided by the ATO to enable the Board to meets its outcomes. The Commissioner of Taxation and the Chair of the Board (on behalf of the Board) must agree on the resources and budget required for the Board to perform its functions and exercise its powers under the TASA.

The summary of expenditure provided in this section includes direct salary and supplier costs, but not overheads, and is not intended as a financial statement. The Board’s financial operations are reported as part of the ATO’s financial operations in that agency’s annual report, and this report does not include detailed financial statements.

At the start of the 2010–11 year, the ATO allocated $13,534,000 to the Board for its direct costs for the year. At the time, the Board recognised that this budget might be insufficient for its likely costs for the first full year of operations.

Subsequently during the year, recognising the financial pressures facing the Board, the ATO agreed to provide an additional $3.3 million for the year, increasing the budget allocation to $16,834,000.

Actual direct expenditure for 2010–11 is shown in table 3.5. These figures include the direct costs of the Board and do not include any corporate support and infrastructure costs for services provided by the ATO.

Table 3.5: Direct expenditure by cost centre, 2010–11 ($)

	Salary costs	Supplier costs	Total
Regulatory Assurance	4,700,618	432,116	5,132,734
Registration	5,213,894	93,390	5,307,284
Legal	1,117,585	385,056	1,502,641
Board and Members	727,369	1,072,530	1,799,899
Business Systems and Communication	1,205,558	615,020*	1,820,578
Secretariat	967,823	298,292	1,266,115
TOTAL	13,932,847	2,896,404	16,829,251

* Also includes an amount of $116,869 for Depreciation of an information technology asset. 

Employee and related costs made up 83% of our total expenditure. Other areas included:

• Contractors ($988k or 6% of total expenditure) – Board members are remunerated as contractors in accordance with notes determined by the Remuneration Tribunal; contractors also assisted in providing the Board’s enquiry management functionality.

• Travel and Accommodation ($797k or 4.6% of total expenditure) – reflecting costs associated with establishing the Board, its dispersed operations and the regulatory framework.

• Technology ($273k or 1.6% of total expenditure) – reflecting recurring costs for our business systems, while we have capitalised $440,000 of expenditure on implementing and enhancing our major system asset (iMIS).

• Litigation ($278k or 2% of total expenditure) – the cost of litigation and legal advice in relation to the TASA.

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04 Management and accountability

Corporate governance

The Board

The TASA provides for the members of the Board including its Chair to be appointed on a full or part-time basis by the Minister (the Assistant Treasurer). The Chair cannot otherwise hold any office or appointment under Commonwealth law, nor be appointed or engaged under the Public Service Act 1999.

The Assistant Treasurer has appointed Dale Boucher PSM as Chair on a full-time basis, and other members on a part-time basis, all for a period of three years. The part-time members during the year were:

• Matthew Addison

• Cynthia Coleman

• Gordon Cooper AM

• Roger Cotton

• Christopher M Doogan AM

• Michael Evans

• George Fox

• Miriam Holmes¹

• Dale Pinto

• Russell Smith

• Yvonne Sneddon²

(For more details, see ‘Members of the Board’.)

¹ Miriam Holmes resigned as Board member on 25 March 2011.
² Yvonne Sneddon commenced her appointment on 13 July 2010.

Committees

The TASA enables the Board to form committees with delegated authority to make certain decisions. The committee structure enables the Board to make timely decisions in an efficient way, particularly on routine matters such as registration applications.

Under the TASA, the Board may only delegate appellable decision-making powers to a committee of at least three Board members (and all members of the committee must be Board members). Appellable decisions include those:

• rejecting registration applications

• imposing conditions on registrations

• terminating registration or other sanctions

• extending investigation periods.

The Board has limited capacity under the TASA to appoint non-Board members, including people not on the Board’s staff, as members of some committees. This enables the Board to obtain expert advice or assistance as required, as well as to delegate some routine decision-making to qualified staff members.

The Board’s consultative, policy and operational committees at 30 June 2011 are listed in tables 4.1 and 4.2.

Table 4.1: Policy and consultative committees

These committees from the basis by which the Board determines and finalises its policies, procedures and approach to a range of topics.

Committee number	Name
1	Board Consultative Forum
2	Implementation/Coverage Issues Committee
3	Entry, Registration, Experience and Qualifications Issues for tax and BAS Agents
4	Professional Practice Issues for tax and BAS Agents
5	Compliance/Investigations Committee
6	Professional Indemnity Insurance Committee
11	Continuing Professional Education Committee

Table 4.2: Operational committees

Under the TASA, the mechanism for the Board to delegate its powers to individuals is through the formation of a Committee. Consequently there are moany operational committees to reflect the delegation of Board powers to individual staff and Board members for efficient and effective administration.

Committee number	Name
7	Risk and Audit Committee
8	Strategic Budget Committee
9	Recognising Agent Associations Committee
10A	Old Law Outcomes Committee A*
10B	Old Law Outcomes Committee B*
12	Non-Reviewable Decisions Committee
13	Reviewable Applications Decision Committee
14	Investigation Process Committee
15	Investigation Process Committee
16	Investigation Process Committee
17	Investigation Process Committee
18	Investigation Process Committee
19	Board Conduct Committee
20	Course Approval Process Committee

* No longer operational.

The Office of the Secretary

The Tax Agent Services Regulations 2009 provide for the Commissioner of Taxation to make available to the Board as its Secretary a person who is engaged under the Public Service Act and performing duties in the ATO.

The Secretary and other staff (who are also ATO employees) work at the direction of the Board. This arrangement enables the Board to operate independently of the ATO.

The Secretary has responsibility under the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 for the expenditure of public money for the purposes of the Board. Reporting to the Secretary are directors responsible for the functional areas of the Board’s operations.

Corporate and operational planning

The Board has finalised a Strategic Plan for 2011 to 2013, which forms part of our internal governance mechanism and documents the Board’s business model and strategies. The Strategic Plan is supported by annual business plans for each of the Board’s functional areas.

Elements of the Strategic Plan are published on the Board’s website (www.tpb.gov.au).

Internal audit, risk management, fraud control and ethical standards

As the Board operates with funds provided by the ATO, for the purposes of the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 the Board’s financial operations are managed according to the ATO’s established and tested processes for internal audit, risk management, fraud control and maintaining ethical standards.

However, the Board has established its own audit and risk function to cover operational and governance activities. This is overseen by the Board’s Audit and Risk Management Committee, which was established during the year. This Committee has an independent, non-Board member convenor in Geoff Applebee.

Complaints about the Board’s decisions and operations

The Board recognises the need to establish a robust complaints management process to deal with complaints made about how it operates. (For our responses to complaints regarding breaches of the TASA by registered agents and other entities).

We value complaints as a means of informing and strengthening our administrative and decision-making processes, as well as our application of the principles of natural justice. To this end, we consulted the Commonwealth Ombudsman and have implemented a complaint management strategy that is aligned to the Ombudsman’s Better practice guide to complaint handling.

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External scrutiny

The Board’s decisions and operations are subject to review by a range of external bodies including the courts and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, parliamentary committees, the Australian National Audit Office, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Privacy and Information Commissioner.

Judicial and administrative tribunal decisions

Decisions by the Board to impose sanctions, as well as most other Board decision-making, can be appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) or reviewed by the Federal Court of Australia.

During the year, there were 14 matters involving administrative appeals in respect of Board decisions or of matters relating to the TASA. There were no judicial reviews under the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977.

As the Board replaced the state-based Tax Agents’ Boards from 1 March 2010, it inherited responsibility for appeals and reviews still active in the Federal Court and the AAT, arising from decisions made by the former Tax Agents’ Boards under Part VIIA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936. At 30 June 2010, five inherited matters before the AAT were still outstanding. Of these, all had been resolved by 30 June 2011.

Table 4.3 shows the outcomes of matters finalised during 2010–11.

Of the matters before the AAT that were finalised during the year, three related to decisions by the Tax Practitioners Board since it began operating in March 2010:

• The first involved a decision to cancel registration (for lodging income tax returns which were false in material particulars, neglecting the business of a principal, being guilty of misconduct as a tax agent and not being a fit and proper person). The matter was remitted for reconsideration by the Board, which indicated that due to mitigating circumstances advised subsequent to its decision it would favourably consider suspending the registration for a period instead of cancelling it. The applicant then withdrew the AAT application, and the matter is therefore taken to have been dismissed. The agent’s registration was suspended for five years.

• The second matter was a decision to refuse a transitional application for registration as a tax agent on the grounds that the Board was not satisfied that the practitioner had been providing tax agent services to a competent standard for a reasonable period prior to making their application for registration. The applicant appealed to the AAT, but before the matter was heard provided further evidence to the Board, which then agreed for the AAT to remit back for reconsideration. As the Board indicated it would consider the new evidence favourably, the applicant withdrew the AAT application and the matter was taken to have been dismissed.

• The third matter related to a decision to reject an application for registration as a tax agent on the grounds that the applicant did not have adequate experience. The applicant subsequently withdrew the appeal and the matter was taken to have been dismissed.

The two matters finalised in the Federal Court were appeals to single judges from AAT decisions where the AAT had endorsed the decisions by Tax Agents’ Boards.

The first related to a decision to cancel the registration of an agent based on his breach of an undertaking which had led him to be found not to be a ‘fit and proper person’. The agent appealed against the AAT decision primarily based on an argument that the breach of the undertaking was not wilful and thereby not sufficient for the AAT decision. The Federal Court dismissed the appeal finding in favour of the Board and awarding the Board the costs of court. [Pleno v Tax Practitioners Board [2010] FCA 1196]

The second Federal Court decision involved a director and nominee, who was also found not to be a ‘fit and proper person’ and the company was refused re-registration. The Federal Court found no error of law in the AAT decision, which endorsed the Board decision, and also awarded costs in favour of the Board. [Phillip Same Accountants Pty Ltd v Tax Practitioners Board [2011] FCA 36]
 
Table 4.3: Finalised litigation, 2010–11

Jurisdiction	Finalised matters*	Applicant withdrawal	Decision in Board’s favour	Decision against Board†
Administrative Appeals Tribunal	8	5	1	2
Federal Court	2	0	2	0
TOTAL	10	5	3	2

* Includes matters where the applicant withdrew.

† Decisions against the Board are in relation to decisions by NSW Tax Agents’ Board.

The two AAT decisions against the Board related to decisions made by the Tax Agents’ Board of New South Wales (TAB). With the start of the tax agent services regime on 1 March 2010, responsibility for all ongoing state TAB cases was transferred to the Board.

• The first decision related to a decision of the TAB to cancel a tax agent’s registration. The AAT set this aside and substituted a decision to suspend the applicant’s registration for a period of six months. [Allen J Middlebrook and Associates Pty Ltd and Tax Practitioners Board [2010] AATA 622 (20 August 2010)]

• The second decision related to a TAB decision to reject an application for registration as a tax agent on the basis that the applicant was not a fit and proper person to prepare income tax returns and transact business on behalf of taxpayers in income tax matters. The AAT set aside the decision of the TAB and ordered that the matter be remitted back to the Board for reconsideration with a direction that the applicant is a fit and proper person for registration. [Peter Ristevski v Tax Practitioners Board [2010] AATA 749] 

Other points of accountability

The Board received and responded to nine Commonwealth Ombudsman investigation notices in 2010–11. In all cases the Ombudsman advised no further action would be taken as they were satisfied with the Board’s response.

Of the cases:

• seven related to Board decisions to not impose sanctions on agents who were complained about by the public

• one related to a delay in the Board responding to a complainant

• one related to a delay in responding to an agent’s registration enquiry. The Board continues to work with the Ombudsman in building strong complaint management processes. 

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Our staff

The Board’s staff are drawn from the ATO workforce and made available to the Board by the Commissioner of Taxation. The staff remain ATO employees but work under the Board’s direction.

Workforce planning

The Board’s founding workforce has been based largely on the resources allocated by the ATO to the regulation of tax practitioners, particularly its support to the state Tax Agents’ Boards.

A legacy of this is that the Board’s staffing structure has been geographically dispersed. Among other constraints, this has limited opportunities for multi-skilling, and making the best use of resources to cover the peaks and troughs inherent in much of the Board’s workload, including registration.

As part of the strategic planning process, the Board has reviewed staffing requirements in consultation with the ATO to determine the appropriate workforce profile, including the location of offices.

Over the next 12 months the Board will move to consolidate its registration functions in Hurstville NSW to provide for the most effective and efficient operations. The Board will look to consolidate other functions in this area in the next two to three years, but will need to keep a presence in Melbourne, Brisbane and perhaps other areas.

The Board has consulted closely with staff and their formal employer, the ATO (our staff remain ATO employees). The ATO has informed the Board that they will be able to offer alternative positions to most registration staff who are unable to relocate and, to the extent necessary, some funds were available for redundancies.

Training and development

As ATO employees, the Board’s staff have access to and participate in the ATO’s training and development program as part of their on-going career and professional development. This is further supplemented by specific Board training and development.

Workforce profile

At 30 June 2011, the Board’s workforce consisted of 141 ongoing and non-ongoing employees under the Public Service Act 1999, excluding those on leave without pay. They were located at eight sites across the country, including our national office in Canberra.

Details of the functional allocation, classification and location of staff are shown in tables 4.4 to 4.6.

Table 4.4: Employeess by functional stream at 30 June 2011

Stream	Number of employees
Chair’s Office	2
Office of the Secretary	7
Regulatory Assurance	53
Registrations	52
Legal Services	12
IT & Communications	15
TOTAL EMPLOYEES	141

Table 4.5: Employees by classification and gender at 30 June 2011

	Full time		Part-time
CLASSIFICATION	FEMALE	MALE	FEMALE	MALE	TOTAL
Senior executive service 2		1			1
Senior executive service 1
Executive level 2	5	3			8
Executive level 1	10	13	1		22
APS6	15	18	3	1	37
APS5	9	8	2		19
APS4	13	7	4		26
APS3	15	8	5		28
APS2
APS1
Graduates
Cadets
TOTAL	67	58	15	1	141

Note: Includes paid ongoing and non-ongoing employees at 23 June 2011, the last pay day of 2010–11.

Excludes externals.

Table 4.6: Employees by location at 30 June 2011

Region	Number of employees
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
Canberra	14
SUBTOTAL	14
NEW SOUTH WALES
Albury	1
Newcastle	4
Hurstville	52
Wollongong	1
SUBTOTAL	58
QUEENSLAND
Brisbane	29
SUBTOTAL	29
TASMANIA
Hobart	1
SUBTOTAL	1
VICTORIA
Box Hill	39
SUBTOTAL	39
TOTAL OPERATIVE STAFF	141

Enterprise agreements

All on-going Board staff are ATO officers and as such are covered by the 2009 ATO Agency Agreement.

Board member remuneration

Board members are statutory office holders, appointed by the Minister (the Assistant Treasurer). Board member remuneration is determined by the Remuneration Tribunal.

Executive remuneration

The Secretary is a senior executive service officer of the ATO. Executive remuneration arrangements are determined by the ATO and covered in that agency’s annual report.

Performance pay

As Board staff are employees of the ATO, performance pay arrangements (where applicable) are covered in that agency’s annual report.

Occupational health and safety

As Board staff are employees of the ATO, occupational health and safety processes are covered in that agency’s annual report.

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Assets management

As the Board operates using ATO funds for the purposes of the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997, assets used by the Board are managed according to the ATO’s established processes.

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Purchasing and consultancies

The goods and services required to support the Board’s operations are purchased by the ATO on behalf of the Board. Detailed information on the ATO’s procurement processes and activities (including consultancies and advertising, direct mail, media placement and market research activities) is included in that agency’s annual report.

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Changes to disability reporting in annual reports

Since 1994, Commonwealth departments and agencies have reported on their performance as policy adviser, purchaser, employer, regulator and provider under the Commonwealth Disability Strategy. In 2007–08, reporting on the employer role was transferred to the Australian Public Service Commission’s State of the Service Report and the APS Statistical Bulletin. These reports are available at www.apsc.gov.au. From 2010–11, departments and agencies are no longer required to report on these functions.

The Commonwealth Disability Strategy has been overtaken by a new National Disability Strategy which sets out a ten year national policy framework for improving life for Australians with disability, their families and carers. A high level report to track progress for people with disability at a national level will be produced by the Standing Council on Community, Housing and Disability Services to the Council of Australian Governments and will be available at www.fahcsia.gov.au. The Social Inclusion Measurement and Reporting Strategy agreed by the Government in December 2009 will also include some reporting on disability matters in its regular How Australia is Faring report and, if appropriate, in strategic change indicators in agency annual reports. More detail on social inclusion matters can be found at www.socialinclusion.gov.au

The Board’s services are primarily delivered through its website, which is being redesigned. As part of this, the website’s accessibility for people with disability will be reviewed to ensure that it meets appropriate standards.

As the Board’s staff remain ATO employees they are covered by the ATO’s disability strategy and policies, which are covered in that agency’s annual report.

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Appendixes

Appendix A

Annual report compliance index

This compliance index shows the location in this report of information that is specified as mandatory or suggested by the Requirements for Annual Reports for Departments, Executive Agencies and FMA Act Bodies, Attachment F, issued by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in July 2011.

Section/page reference in this Report	Requirements document reference	Description	Requirement
p.ii	8(3) & A.4	Letter of transmittal	Mandatory
p.1	A.5	Table of contents	Mandatory
p.80	A.5	Index	Mandatory
p.79	A.5	Glossary	Mandatory
Appendix E, p.78	A.5	Contact officer(s)	Mandatory
Appendix E, p.78	A.5	Internet home page address and Internet address for report	Mandatory
	9	Review by Secretary	Mandatory
Review by the Chair, p.5	9(1)	Review by departmental secretary	Mandatory
Review by the Chair, p.5	9(2)	Summary of significant issues and developments	Suggested
Performance and achievements, p.29	9(2)	Overview of department’s performance and financial results	Suggested
Challenges for the year ahead, p.11	9(2)	Outlook for following year	Suggested
Not applicable	9(3)	Significant issues and developments – portfolio	Portfolio departments – suggested
	10	Departmental overview	Mandatory
Overview of the Board and its role, p.15	10	Overview description of department	Mandatory
Who we are and what we do, p.16	10(1)	Role and functions	Mandatory
Operations and organisational structure, p.27	10(1)	Organisational structure	Mandatory
Program and outcome framework, p.30	10(1)	Outcome and program structure	Mandatory
Not applicable	10(2)	Where outcome and program structures differ from PB Statements/PAES or other portfolio statements accompanying any other additional appropriation bills (other portfolio statements), details of variation and reasons for change	Mandatory
Not applicable	10(3)	Portfolio structure	Portfolio departments – mandatory
	11	Report on performance	Mandatory
Performance and achievements, p.29	11(1)	Review of performance during the year in relation to programs and contribution to outcomes	Mandatory
Outcomes against KPIs, p.31	11(2)	Actual performance in relation to deliverables and KPIs set out in PB Statements/PAES or other portfolio statements	Mandatory
Not applicable	11(2)	Where performance targets differ from the PBS/ PAES, details of both former and new targets, and reasons for the change	Mandatory
Performance and achievements, p.29	11(2)	Narrative discussion and analysis of performance	Mandatory
Performance and achievements, p.29	11(2)	Trend information	Mandatory
Not applicable	11(3)	Performance of purchaser/ provider arrangements	If applicable, suggested
Not applicable	11(3)	Significant changes in nature of principal functions/ services	Suggested
Performance and achievements, p.29	11(3)	Factors, events or trends influencing departmental performance	Suggested
Not applicable	10(2)	Where outcome and program structures differ from PB Statements/PAES or other portfolio statements accompanying any other additional appropriation bills (other portfolio statements), details of variation and reasons for change	Mandatory
Internal audit, risk management, fraud control and ethical standards, p.59	11(3)	Contribution of risk management in achieving objectives	Suggested
Not applicable	11(4)	Social inclusion outcomes	If applicable, mandatory
Complaints about the Board’s decisions and operations, p.59	11(5)	Performance against service charter customer service standards, complaints data, and the department’s response to complaints	If applicable, mandatory
Not applicable	11(6)	Discussion and analysis of the department’s financial performance	Mandatory
Not applicable	11(7)	Discussion of any significant changes from the prior year or from budget.	Suggested
Not applicable	11(8)	Agency resource statement and summary resource tables by outcomes	Mandatory
Not applicable	11(9)	Developments since the end of the financial year that have affected or may significantly affect the department’s operations or financial results in future	If applicable, mandatory
	12	Management Accountability
		Corporate Governance
Internal Audit, p.59	12(1)	Agency heads are required to certify that their agency comply with the Commonwealth Fraud Control Guidelines	Mandatory
Management and accountability, p.55	12(2)	Statement of the main corporate governance practices in place	Mandatory
Operations and organisational structure, p.27	12(3)	Names of the senior executive and their responsibilities	Suggested
Committees, p.57	12(3)	Senior management committees and their roles	Suggested
Corporate and operational planning, p.59	12(3)	Corporate and operational planning and associated performance reporting and review	Suggested
Internal audit, risk management, fraud control and ethical standards, p.59	12(3)	Approach adopted to identifying areas of significant financial or operational risk	Suggested
Internal audit, risk management, fraud control and ethical standards, p.59	12(3)	Policy and practices on the establishment and maintenance of appropriate ethical standards	Suggested
Executive remuneration, p.67	12(3)	How nature and amount of remuneration for SES officers is determined	Suggested
		External scrutiny
External scrutiny, p.60	12(4)	Significant developments in external scrutiny	Mandatory
Judicial and administrative tribunal decisions, p.60	12(4)	Judicial decisions and decisions of administrative tribunals	Mandatory
Other points of accountability, p.62	12(4)	Reports by the Auditor-General, a Parliamentary Committee or the Commonwealth Ombudsman	Mandatory
		Management of Human Resources
Our staff, p.63	12(5)	Assessment of effectiveness in managing and developing human resources to achieve departmental objectives	Mandatory
Workforce planning, p.63	12(6)	Workforce planning, staff turnover and retention	Suggested
Enterprise agreements, p.67	12(6)	Impact and features of enterprise or collective agreements, individual flexibility arrangements (IFAs), determinations, common law contracts and AWAs	Suggested
Training and development, p.63	12(6)	Training and development undertaken and its impact	Suggested
Occupational health and safety, p.67	12(6)	Occupational health and safety performance	Suggested
Workforce planning, p.63	12(6)	Productivity gains	Suggested
Workforce profile, p.64	12(7)	Statistics on staffing	Mandatory
Enterprise agreements, p.67	12(8)	Enterprise or collective agreements, IFAs, determinations, common law contracts and AWAs	Mandatory
Performance pay, p.67	12(9) & B	Performance pay	Mandatory
Assets management, p.68	12(10)–(11)	Assessment of effectiveness of assets management	If applicable, mandatory
Purchasing and consultancies, p.68	12(12)	Assessment of purchasing against core policies and principles	Mandatory
Purchasing and consultancies, p.68	12(13)–(24) & C, D	The annual report must include a summary statement detailing the number of new consultancy services contracts let during the year; the total actual expenditure on all new consultancy contracts let during the year (inclusive of GST); the number of ongoing consultancy contracts that were active in the reporting year; and the total actual expenditure in the reporting year on the ongoing consultancy contracts (inclusive of GST). The annual report must include a statement noting that information on contracts and consultancies is available through the AusTender website. (Additional information as in Attachment D to be available on the Internet or published as an appendix to the report. Information must be presented in accordance with the pro forma as set out in Attachment D.)	Mandatory
Purchasing and consultancies, p.68	12(25)	Absence of provisions in contracts allowing access by the Auditor-General	Mandatory
Purchasing and consultancies, p.68	12(26)	Contracts exempt from the AusTender	Mandatory
Not applicable	13	Financial Statements	Mandatory
		Other Mandatory Information
Occupational health and safety, p.67	14(1) & C	Occupational health and safety (section 74 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1991)	Mandatory
Appendix B, p.76	14(1) & C	Freedom of information for the period 1 July 2010 to 30 April 2011 inclusive (see terms of subsection 8(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 as it existed prior to 1 May 2011)	Mandatory
Purchasing and consultancies, p.68	14(1) & C	Advertising and Market Research (Section 311A of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918) and statement on advertising campaigns	Mandatory
Appendix D, p.78	14(1) & C	Ecologically sustainable development and environmental performance (Section 516A of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999)	Mandatory
Not applicable	14(2) & D	Grant programs	Mandatory
p.68	12(3) & D	Disability reporting – explicit and transparent reference to agency-level information available through other reporting mechanisms	Mandatory
Not applicable	14(4)	Correction of material errors in previous annual report	If applicable, mandatory
Appendix A (this appendix)	F	List of Requirements	Mandatory

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Appendix B

Freedom of information

The Tax Practitioners Board holds information relating to:

• the registration of tax agents and BAS agents

• the registration of recognised professional associations

• investigations into the conduct of registered agents and unregistered preparers

• the Board’s internal management including personnel, contracting and financial records.

Under section 60-135 of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009, the Board is also required to establish and maintain a register of registered tax agents and BAS agents, and certain former registered tax agents and BAS agents.

This register is publicly available on the Board’s website.

The Board is also required to comply with the Information Publication Scheme (IPS) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. The IPS requires the Board to publish a broad range of information on its website and also to publish an agency plan that explains how the Board intends to implement and administer the IPS.

Freedom of information requests

Applicants may make a request for access to documents held by the Board. A request for documents should:

• be in writing

• state that it is an application for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 1982

• specify an address (e.g. by providing a postal or electronic address) at which notices under the FOI Act may be sent

• specify the documents to which access is sought, and

• be posted, delivered or emailed to the Board.

FOI requests can be sent by email to foi@tpb.gov.au or by post to:

FOI Coordinator
Tax Practitioners Board Legal Unit
GPO Box 1200
BRISBANE QLD 4001

During the year, the Board received eight requests for documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and:

• granted access in full in response to four of the requests

• granted access in part in response to one of the requests

• transferred one of the requests in whole to another agency

• is still processing two requests.

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Appendix C

Information provided to law enforcement agencies and royal commissions

Under subsection 70-40(4) of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA), the Board may disclose information acquired under the TASA to an authorised law enforcement agency officer for the purpose of:

• investigating a serious offence

• enforcing a law, the contravention of which is a serious offence

• the making, or proposed or possible making, of a proceeds of crime order.

In the reporting period, the Board:

• did not receive any requests by, or on behalf of, the head of a law enforcement agency to disclose information under subsection 70-40(4) of the TASA to an authorised law enforcement agency officer; and

• did not disclose any information under subsection 70-40(4) of the TASA to an authorised law enforcement agency officer.

Consequently, there were no occasions during the reporting period where the Board disclosed information under subsection 70-40(4) of the TASA.

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Appendix D

Ecologically sustainable development and environmental performance

The ATO currently provides the Board’s facilities, assets and enterprise IT environment. While that remains the case we will rely on that agency’s environmental policies and plans, set out in its annual report, to optimise our environmental performance.

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Appendix E

Contact for more information

For more information, see the Board’s website www.tpb.gov.au or contact the Board by email: communications@tpb.gov.au or by post:

Tax Practitioners Board
TPB Communications
9th Floor
14 Moore St
CANBERRA ACT 2601

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Glossary

ASIC	Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
ATO	Australian Taxation Office.
BAS (business activity statement)	Businesses use a BAS to report and pay a number of tax obligations, including GST, pay as you go (PAYG) instalments, PAYG withholding and fringe Benefits tax. Activity statements are also used by individuals who need to pay quarterly PAYG instalments.
BAS agent	Individuals or other entities who provide BAS services for a fee or other reward.
Commissioner	Commissioner of Taxation.
TASA	Tax Agent Services Act 2009.
Tax agent	Individuals or other entities who provides certain tax agent services for a fee or other reward.
Tax agent services	Services provided for a fee or other reward and which may include an element of tax advice, where it can reasonably expected that the services or advice will be relied on for tax purposes.
Tax Agents' Boards	The six state-based Tax Agents’ Boards, which regulated tax agents under Part VIIA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, were replaced by the Tax Practitioners Board on 1 March 2010.
Unregistered entities	Individuals and other entities who are not registered as tax agents or BAS agents.

 

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