Issued: 23 April 2025
Last modified: 23 April 2025
As at 28 February 2025, the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has received 53 reports from registered tax practitioners indicating they were reporting a significant breach of the Code of Professional Conduct (Code). Of the 53 reports:
- 38 were reports made by registered tax practitioners against another registered tax practitioner; and
- 15 were self-reported breaches.
Predominately the primary breaches being reported about another registered tax practitioner relate to:
- Code item 1 (acting honestly and with integrity), and
- Code item 7 (ensuring competent provision of tax agent service).
We are also observing reports of fraud on clients.
Self-reports indicate Code item 1 breaches, usually by unethical practices being undertaken by staff in their practice. Tax practitioners are also advising of Code item 2 issues, where their personal tax obligations may not be up to date. We are also seeing breaches of Code item 6 (maintaining client confidentiality), due to inadvertent sharing of clients’ personal information.
None of the significant breach reports received have been identified as frivolous, vexatious or malicious.
Key points about breach reporting
To assist tax practitioners to understand this obligation, below are key points about breach reporting:
- The breach reporting requirements allow for the identification and management of the risk of non-compliance by tax practitioners with the objective of improving services, tax practitioner conduct, protecting consumers and increasing community confidence in the system.
- Breach reporting provides important intelligence and data to shape the services, guidance and education we provide to assist tax practitioners who are doing, or seeking to do, the right thing. This intelligence also informs our risk assessment and corresponding compliance approach.
- You do not need to report all breaches of the Code. You need to report only those Code breaches to us that are significant. You also do not have to go looking for potential Code breaches by other tax registered tax practitioners. You must report in circumstances where you become aware of a Code breach and you have reasonable grounds to believe the breach is ‘significant’.
- You cannot make a significant breach report based on hearsay or others’ opinions. When making a report you must have ‘reasonable’ grounds to believe a significant breach has occurred. This means you must have a solid foundation or factual basis for your belief, and not make frivolous, vexatious or malicious claims.
- When you are making a report to the TPB you will need let us know who you are. However, where you are making a report about another tax practitioner there may be circumstances where you do not want your personal details disclosed to the other tax practitioner. In those circumstances, you can let us know if you have any concerns around confidentiality.
- Breach reporting only applies to the conduct of registered tax practitioners. This can be confused with the new false or misleading statement obligations that relates to your clients.
When should you report a breach
We recognise that establishing if a breach is ‘significant’ in relation to the conduct of another tax practitioner may be more difficult, as you are not necessarily privy to the same information about the breach (or potential breach). It will depend on an analysis of the circumstances and consideration of a number of factors, which we discuss in our guidance. Provided there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe the breach is ‘significant’, and you can substantiate your belief, this will generally be sufficient. If you are not certain that there has been a significant breach of the Code but have reasonable grounds for believing there has been, you must still report the breach. If you are unsure that you have reasonable grounds, you should err on the side of caution and report it.