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Complaints about tax agents, BAS agents or unregistered preparers

The Tax Practitioners Board (Board) aims to ensure tax agent services and BAS services are provided to the public in accordance with appropriate standards of professional and ethical conduct. Registered tax agents and BAS agents are required to comply with the Code of Professional Conduct (Code) which is set out in the legislation which the Board administers. This is the Tax Agent Services Act 2009.

The Code sets out requirements that registered agents:

  • act honestly and with integrity
  • comply with taxation laws in the conduct of their own affairs
  • account for money or other property held on trust
  • act lawfully in your best interests
  • have adequate arrangements to manage conflicts of interest
  • keep your affairs confidential
  • provide services competently
  • maintain their relevant tax law knowledge and skills
  • take reasonable care in ascertaining the state of your affairs, to the extent relevant
  • must take reasonable care to apply tax laws correctly
  • not knowingly obstruct the proper administration of tax laws
  • advise you of your tax rights and obligations
  • must maintain any professional indemnity insurance required by the Board

You can make a complaint to the Board if you believe that the tax agent or BAS services provided to you have not been to an appropriate professional standard; or that an agent has acted contrary to the Code.

Use this form to provide the details of your complaint to the Board.

You can check the register of tax agents and BAS agents to check if your agent is registered with the Tax Practitioners Board. If they are not registered, they cannot provide tax agent or BAS services for a fee or other reward. You can lodge a complaint about an unregistered agent with the Board using the same form.

Complaints we can consider

We can consider written complaints about entities providing tax agent services and BAS services, whether or not the entity is registered or unregistered. Entities include individuals, partnerships and companies.

Complaints we can consider may involve any breaches of the elements of the Code described above.

Complaints we will not act upon

The Board is concerned about all complaints that are properly made to it.  However, not all complaints we receive are about issues which fall under our jurisdiction, and sometimes the nature or particulars of a complaint means it is not appropriate for the Board to act upon it. There are some circumstances where a person with a grievance would be best directed to another body, such as the police.

We will not take action on any complaints that are determined to be frivolous, vexatious or not made in good faith.

We will not take action on complaints which are not relevant to our jurisdiction. This may include:

  • disputes over fees where no other relevant Code issues are present
  • problems encountered with the agent’s provision of non tax agent or BAS services where the agent’s integrity and propriety is not called into question.

Other Information

Fees

We cannot always help to resolve a dispute with a registered tax agent or BAS agent about fees. These are often commercial matters which clients should seek to resolve according to the terms of their contract with the agent. However, if there is a fee-related issue that is in some clear way connected to the Code, we may consider it.

Penalties

We cannot order a tax agent or BAS agent to pay any penalties, interest or charges imposed by the ATO, on a client’s behalf.  The ATO administers laws which are called ‘safe harbour’ provisions. These allow ATO penalties to be remitted in some circumstances where the penalties were imposed because of an agent’s actions.   Please refer to the ATO’s website www.ato.gov.au for more details about the safe harbour provisions.

What happens to your complaint?

Once we have received your complaint we may contact you to clarify details or to collect additional information relevant to the complaint.  We will then determine whether it is a complaint we can act upon.

If we take action on your complaint, we will usually provide details of your complaint to the tax or BAS agent. The Board needs to be fair in the way in which it handles complaints and therefore we will need to give the agent an opportunity to respond to the issues you have raised. We may ask you to provide further information once we have received a response from the tax or BAS agent, we may also ask you to give us details in writing.

Some matters raised in complaints may lead to a formal investigation of an agent. Where an investigation has been conducted and a decision has been made about the issues arising from your complaint we will write to you and advise you of the decision and the reasons for the decision. 

If we do not formally investigate a complaint, we will provide you with as much information as we can about that decision.

We may decide to:

  • take no action;
  • issue a caution to the agent;
  • order an agent to
    • complete a course of education or training
    • only provide services under supervision or
    • only provide specified services
  • suspend the agent’s registration for a period of time
  • terminate the agent’s registration;
  • apply to the Federal Court for an injunction restraining or requiring certain conduct, on the part of the agent;
  • apply to the Federal Court for what is known as a civil penalty order. These orders impose financial penalties on the agent, subject to the Court’s consideration of the case.

How long will the process take?

Each complaint is different. Some can be resolved quickly, others require more time especially if we need further information from you, the agent or a third party.