New rules will stop tax agents seeking mental health help: CA ANZ
CA ANZ chief executive Ainslie van Onselen, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones and TPB chairman Peter de Cure.
The ongoing battle over laws to update the tax agents’ code of professional conduct has pitted a coalition of 10 professional associations against Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones. The federal Coalition has said it will oppose the rules, scheduled to come before the Senate next month.
The associations have complained about a lack of consultation and are demanding changes to the proposed laws, leading to a delay in when they come into effect.
Mr Jones says the new rules will prevent a repeat of the PwC tax leaks scandal, where former partner Peter Collins shared confidential government information, and tighten up self-regulation of the sector that has been found to be “insufficient”.
Separately, CA ANZ said four investigations into members linked to the tax leaks matter have or will be paused until nine separate inquiries into the scandal by the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) are completed. CA ANZ admitted last year it had mistakenly allowed Mr Collins to resign as a member after he was sanctioned by the board.
CA ANZ chief executive Ainslie van Onselen writes in The Australian Financial Review: “Our top concern [about the new code] is the requirement for tax professionals to advise all current and prospective clients of ‘any matter’ that could ‘significantly influence’ a decision of a client to engage them or continue to engage them.”
‘Deeply concerned’ over code
The body’s legal advice is that the updated code could require tax agents to disclose private medical and mental health information to clients.
Ms van Onselen writes she is “deeply concerned that these new obligations will disincentivise CA ANZ members seeking mental health help” over fears it would have to be disclosed to clients.
She is also worried tax agents will have to “disclose to clients if they are subject to an investigation by the TPB, or any other body”, noting that “an investigation by the TPB doesn’t always mean inappropriate behaviour has occurred”.
CA ANZ has presented the government with amended wording that limits mandatory client disclosures to when findings have been made against the agent.
In response, Mr Jones said “the accounting bodies know that is not true” that clients would be forced to tell clients about any mental health issues. Rather, tax agents would be obliged to disclose significant matters that a client should know about before hiring them for work.
“The Collins’ affair shows that someone could be in breach of the law and they had no obligation to inform their clients about that,” Mr Jones said.
He said the new rules – along with enhanced powers of the TPB – were designed to legislate professional obligations that had previously been subject to self-regulation by the sector.
“What the Collins’ affair demonstrated is that the [tax] practitioners regulations were not up to scratch. We are aiming to fix this,” Mr Jones said.
Self-regulation by the professional bodies had “been shown to be insufficient and these changes will uplift it”.
TPB chairman Peter de Cure said the board was consulting the sector on its formal guidance ahead of the rules coming into effect for large firms in January.
No disclosure expectation: de Cure
He said there was no expectation that tax agents would have to disclose their mental health status to clients.
“There are no circumstances where we expect a professional disclose a mental or physical health condition to clients,” Mr de Cure said.
“You are obligated to disclose to a client when you will be unable to do work for them. You do not need to inform them why this is the case. What practitioners can’t do is say to a client they can do the work when they know they can’t.”
Asked about the responses of Mr Jones and Mr de Cure, Ms van Onselen said CA ANZ’s claims were supported by a “black and white” legal reading of the new rules.
Ms van Onselen, who noted she is a lawyer, said CA ANZ had come to its conclusions after asking a senior barrister and other lawyers to examine the new rules.