My team and I value the vital role that advisers play in influencing the tax performance of Australia’s privately owned and wealthy groups. That role includes ensuring that advisers operating in this market are setting the standard for tax performance and meeting their own personal obligations as taxpayers.
That’s why, last year, we launched the Private Wealth Adviser Program as one of our focus areas under the Tax Avoidance Taskforce.
This program has 3 key objectives:
- Ensuring professional firms and advisers pay the right amount of tax and meet their own personal tax obligations.
- Leveraging the influence advisers have on their clients’ behaviour and tax practice to improve the tax performance of their clients.
- Taking firm action when we see advisers designing or promoting unlawful tax schemes or encouraging their clients to adopt high-risk or uncertain positions.
We recognise and appreciate that most advisers do the right thing. However, unfortunately, over the past year we’ve seen a higher-than-expected number of advisers in our biggest firms not being compliant with basic tax obligations. This includes not keeping their own lodgments up to date, and in some cases, we've seen advisers with outstanding returns going back 15 years or more.
From our work with over 600 advisers about their own tax affairs, we’ve raised $46 million in liabilities. In the worst cases of non-compliance, we've referred those advisers to our Criminal Law Program to pursue prosecutions.
Where we have cause, we'll continue to take the firmest actions on egregious and deliberate behaviours, including referrals to the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) and our own Promoters and Tax Exploitation Program (PTEP) for further investigation.
We've observed and acted on behaviours such as:
- non-compliance with ATO formal notices
- claims of legal professional privilege made without the client requesting it
- incorrectly claiming the accountant's concession
- non-compliance with personal tax obligations
- failure to take reasonable care in ascertaining a client's state of affairs.
In 2025, through the Private Wealth Adviser Program, we'll:
- monitor advisers’ compliance with PCG 2021/4 Allocation of professional firm profits (in full effect from 1 July 2024)
- partner with our frontline operations and the TPB to ensure advisers are paying their taxes in full and on time
- engage with advisers who fail to get the basics right for their privately owned and wealthy group clients
- keep taking firmer action against high-risk advisers through PTEP sanctions and referrals to the TPB
- continue to treat behaviours compromising the integrity of the tax and super systems.
In 2025, we’ll also keep supporting those advisers doing the right thing with the information and resources they need to support their clients in meeting their obligations.
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