Level: Professional
Cost: $199 members $320 non-members
Estimated learning duration: 10 hours
Assessment duration: 2.5 hours
Assessment: Part 1: 20 multiple choice questions 75% pass mark
Part 2: 3 scenarios with 3-4 multiple choice questions per scenario 75% pass mark
Assumed knowledge: There is no tax technical knowledge assumed for this unit.
In this unit you will learn about the regulatory regime for tax practitioners who are registered (or are seeking registration) under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (Cth) (TASA 2009) and the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB), the body responsible for administration and enforcement of the regime. You will also learn about the Code of Professional Conduct, legislated in TASA 2009.
The background and context of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (Cth) (TASA 2009) together with the regulatory regime that it created is discussed in this section. You will also learn about the objects of the regime and way these objects are being met.
The TASA 2009 set up a regulatory body, the TPB to be responsible for the TASR. In this section you will learn about the TPB, its members and staff, its powers, its role and how it fits within the Australian tax system more widely. You will also understand the powers of the TPB in relation to complaints and investigations in more detail.
Tax agents, BAS agents and tax (financial) advisers must be registered with the TPB in order to charge fees for their services. In this section you will learn about the various routes to registration and the requirements that must be met in order to be registered with the TPB. The different scenarios that might arise following registration are also explored, including the circumstances in which the registration can be suspended or terminated by the TPB.
The Code of Professional Conduct is a key part of the TASR, legislated in the TASA 2009. This section works through the 14 ethical and professional standards that tax agents, BAS agents and tax (financial) advisers are expected to meet. These are fundamental to the way in which tax practitioners are expected to operate when providing services to their clients and form the basis of the levels of accountability to which they will be held by the TPB.
As regulator, the TPB must monitor the activities of tax practitioners to ensure that they do not breach the requirements of TASA 2009, including the Code of Professional Conduct. In this section you will learn about the actions that the TPB can take when investigations conclude that a breach has taken place. The TPB has access to a range of administrative sanctions available to it as well as access to civil penalty provisions and injunctions for certain breaches of TASA 2009.
