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Tax practitioners with outstanding obligations have been warned to get their tax affairs in order with the ATO and TPB renewing their focus in this area.
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TPB puts 7k tax agents on notice over outstanding debts, lodgments
28 October 2024
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The ATO and Tax Practitioners Board have warned tax practitioners of the consequences of failing to comply with their own tax obligations with recent ATO analysis revealing that thousands of tax agents have outstanding obligations.
Speaking in a recent webinar, TPB chief executive Michael O'Neill said the latest statistics from September suggest that while most tax practitioners are doing the right thing, a substantial number of practitioners are falling behind in their debt and lodgment obligations.
The statistics indicate that there are 2,000 tax practitioners who have outstanding tax debts exceeding $10,000 without an ATO payment plan.
The TPB also revealed that there are around 5,000 tax practitioners with one or more outstanding ATO lodgments, including income tax returns and activity statements.
Within that group, around 700 tax practitioners have outstanding ATO lodgments and outstanding tax debts exceeding $10,000 without an ATO payment plan.
O'Neill said that the outstanding tax debts owed by the tax practitioners were not debts in contest and were debts that had been self-assessed and included taxes such as PAYG withholding, GST and super. He also said the non-payment of these debts could have knock-on disadvantages for workers for retirement benefits.
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O'Neill said the number of tax practitioners falling behind on their obligations was "far too high" and represents approximately 10 per cent of the registered tax practitioner population.
He warned that when a tax practitioner falls behind on their obligations there can sometimes be a spread of that behaviour to their clients' affairs as well.
"Last December we put out a reminder to remind people of their obligations and it was great to see that many people brought their obligations up to date," O'Neill said.
"Since that time we've been directly contacting practitioners with outstanding tax obligations, where whether their lodgements or debts are behind and again we've seen a good response rate.
"If you've received correspondence and been engaged by the ATO or the TPB, the very worst thing that you can do is to ignore that nudge. The best thing to do is to engage with the ATO and the TPB. Where people engage with openness and transparency, they're always going to get a better outcome."
Speaking in the same webinar, ATO assistant commissioner, frontline risk and strategy, Adam O'Grady, agreed that while most tax practitioners are very compliant in terms of their tax affairs, a minority were failing to keep up to date with their obligations.
"Most of the tax practitioner groups are very compliant, if they do have debts, they've entered into arrangements with us. Unfortunately, there is a small minority that are largely ignoring their obligations for payment or lodgement and in many cases, we're seeing poor lodgment in the client base of that agent as well," O'Grady said.
"That is concerning to us and something that we're looking to address with not only the client's behaviour but also the agent's behaviour and how their attitude to some of these issues is trickling down to their client base."
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