Regulation of Australia’s tax advice market

In March 2020 HMRC opened its consultation into ‘Raising standards in the tax advice market’ (tinyurl.com/wqhqkar) driven largely by the responses received by the independent review into the loan charge imposed by F(No 2)A 2017 Sch 12. Many individuals caught up in loan arrangements had followed the advice of a tax agent and were left with no redress.

In Australia the provision of tax services is governed by among other things the Tax Agents Services Act 2009 (Cth) (TASA 2009) and the Tax Agents Services Regulation 2009 (the TAS Regulations). TASA 2009 establishes the national Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) and provides for the registration and regulation of tax agents and advisers. The act also introduced a legislated code of conduct (the code) and gives the TPB a range of administrative sanctions to deal with breaches of...