The Coalition will proceed with its plans to try and block controversial changes to the Code of Professional Conduct in the Senate next month after Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones announced amendments this week.
Jones informed the joint bodies that amendments to the transitional rules for the changes would mean that tax practitioners would no longer be required to take reasonable steps to establish, implement, and update any systems or processes that are necessary to comply with the new obligations prior to the relevant start date.
He also told industry bodies that he would be willing to discuss potential changes to section 15(2)(c) and section 45 of the determination.
Shadow assistant treasurer and minister for financial services Luke Howarth said this latest move was “too little, too late” and would not change the Coalition’s plans in relation to the disallowance motion.
“The Assistant Treasurer is feeling the heat and is back peddling once again on this raft of unnecessary red tape for tax practitioners,” said Howarth.
“This latest concession changes nothing, and the Coalition will still seek to disallow this outrageous attack on local accountants, bookkeepers and tax agents. These obligations remain far-reaching, poorly drafted and potentially impossible for thousands of smaller tax practitioners to comply with.
“This is another embarrassing mea culpa and an example of the terrible stakeholder management and lack of consultation that has come to be expected under this government.”
Howarth said consultation should be done in a public and transparent manner, not with stakeholders “being gagged and gaslit”.
“The accounting professional bodies are some of the most sophisticated, engaged and responsive industry organisations we have, and the Albanese government has treated them and their thousands of members with contempt,” he said.
The shadow assistant treasurer said the bad behaviour of one large international firm had resulted in thousands of small practices being “collateral damage”.
“Tax practitioners are already highly regulated and well supported by their professional bodies. The TPB already has the ability to deal with poor behaviour and maintain the public’s trust in the profession,” said Howarth.
Professional bodies remain concerned about the determination, with the current instrument still ambiguous and likely to burden practitioners with more red tape.
The Tax Institute’s CEO, Scott Treatt, said that while clarification provided by the Assistant Treasurer was welcome and sensible, good guidance comes from good law and that many practitioners remain concerned about what is actually required to be disclosed to clients.
“If a matter winds up in court, we need unambiguous law to refer to. Guidance material is insufficient in this regard,” said Treatt.
“That clarity should be baked into the instrument, not added later as non-binding guidance and clarification of the law.”
Treatt said an appropriate balance must be found between transparency and privacy, between disclosures to help clients make decisions for themselves and cumbersome red tape.
“We remain concerned that, in its current form, the instrument will not have its desired effect of increasing trust and integrity within the tax profession, but rather the opposite,” he said.
