Tax Agent Code Updates

On 23 December 2024 the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) issued guidance pertaining to the eight new Code of Professional Conduct obligations introduced by the Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024 (the Determination). The new guidance documents are:

• TPB(I) 44/2024 Upholding and promoting the ethical standards of the tax profession
• TPB(I) 45/2024 False or misleading statements
• TPB(I) 46/2024 Managing conflicts of interest when undertaking activities for government and maintaining confidentiality in dealings with government
• TPB(I) 47/2024 Obligation to keep proper client records of tax agent services provided
• TPB(I) 48/2024 Supervision, competency and quality management under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009
• TPB(I) 49/2024 Keeping your clients informed

Many of the new obligations should be familiar to our members as they are drawn from the APESB Standards, particularly APES 110. Members are already required to be compliant with the APESB Standards and, as such, should be a long way down the track in compliance with these new obligations.

Commencement

For registered tax or BAS agent that have 100 employees or less as at 31 July 2024, the new Code obligations apply from 1 July 2025. For those agents with more than 100 employees at that date the obligations commenced on 1 January 2025.