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The ATO is set to visit over 2,000 tax agents a year in a bid to spot pressured agents who are on the cusp of becoming “bad eggs” as part of a response to complaints about unfair and unscrupulous competition in the market.
ATO to visit 2,000 tax agents to capture early-stage problems
19 June 2018
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7 minute read
Speaking on the ATO’s Tax professionals conversations webcast, deputy commissioner Colin Walker said that over the next three to four years, the Tax Office would be targeting practices and agents who inflate or make up deductions, as well as establish a pre-emptive program to prevent agents from travelling down that same path.
“What we want to do in the future – we've got a program to visit around 2,000 agents a year. Those agents who are being visited are because we have seen something that says to us in the future, they are going to run into some problems,” said Mr Walker.
“We want to provide some help at that time, work with the [Tax Practitioners] Board, work with the professional associations, probably the education institutions as well because there are capability issues at times to try and help them.
“It is not a compliance process, it is a process of help to work together to make sure there is support in those early stages where pressure starts to come so that we can actually do something today so they don't end up being a bad agent in the future.”
As announced in the budget, the ATO will be provided with $318.5 million over four years to implement new strategies to combat the black economy, including measures to target egregious tax practitioners who enable black economy activities.
“At all the open forums and various discussion groups that we go to, I see and hear a lot of frustrated agents who are good agents, they work hard, they follow the rules, they do the right thing and some are struggling to keep their clients because of this competition,” said Mr Walker.
“We want to do something about that, we want good agents and the vast majority of agents fit into that category without any problem at all and go in our green line.
“If you're seeing practises such as inflating deductions or making up deductions or agents operating in a way where they clearly don't have the knowledge of the law then you should come to us as well as the TPB because both sides are working together to sort out this problem.”
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- It used to be said in the nineteenth century that Prussia was not a country which had an army but an army which had a country. Today, Australia is not a country which has a Tax Office but a Tax Office which has a country. The banks work for them, tax agents work for them, business compliance departments work for them, stock brokers and share registries work for them, Court and land registries work for them, as do insurance companies and superannuation funds. Ever since they started prosecuting MPs and barristers, increasingly Ministers, Parliament and the Courts kowtow to them as if their word was law. Only a few tenacious lawyers are left who believe the old basic constitutional principle that the Crown must prove its legal entitlement before it seeks to raise a debt against the taxpayer.
More is to come. With the "unexplained wealth" legislation YOU will always have to be able to prove that what is yours is yours to stop outright 100% confiscation.
0 - After my round of work related expense audit I was asked to write why my practice was different to other practices with a similar client base. As I don't know any other practices with a similar client base nor what they do, I just told them that I am not Chinese or Indian, was born in Australia, my main language is English and I am a child of Holocaust parents who were battlers. I felt like I was being asked a stupid question so they got a stupid answer,0
- If the ATO wants us tax agents (who used to act for the taxpayer) to become a tax auditor (who acts for the ATO) then lets call a spade a spade & stop this humbug0
- Looks like the ATO officers get to tour the countryside under the guise of public education. Lots of meals/coffee reimbursements. Lots of business-class flights. No doubt would coincide with regional events and school holidays. I'm shocked at how far the ATO has strayed into Law-making as opposed to Law-administration. Its almost like the ITAA and a few hundred years of taxation law dont matter.0
- What a load of absolute BS!!! The ATO wants "compliant" agents who do what the ATO tells them to do and nothing else! I welcome the ATO to come and talk to us in relation to this - they have so far not wanted to come anywhere near us. How would anyone know whether another agent is "inflating deductions or making up deductions or agents operating in a way where they clearly don't have the knowledge of the law". I have been a practitioner for 40 years and observe that there are many agents who would not go the the toilet unless the ATO told them to - yes, they are compliant, because they are acting for the ATO, not their client. And here's a surprise - they generally have little or no knowledge of the actual law, rather what the ATO told them the law was. Perhaps someone might like to tell me what an "egregious tax practitioners() who enable black economy activities" looks like and perhaps I might be able to help.0
- You are not wrong!! And ATO gets it wrong many a times.0
- Because they are acting for the ATO, not their client <- What a classic :oops::oops:0
