Of the 2,748 registered “tax (financial) advisers” due to renew registration with the TPB in July, more than a quarter failed to do so, causing their registration to expire, the board has announced.
TPB chair Ian Taylor said the failure to renew registration could leave some advisers in a precarious situation.
“Failing to submit a renewal application by the expiry date means the registration expires. If this applies to you, it is important that you advise your clients that you are no longer registered with the TPB and can no longer provide tax (financial) advice services,” Mr Taylor said.
“Under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA) if you are providing a tax (financial) advice service for a fee or other reward, you must be registered with the TPB to be able to legally provide that service.”
Mr Taylor said there are still 14,400 advisers who need to renew in the near future and reminded them that if registration lapses they will need to wait for approval before providing relevant services.
“Significant monetary penalties” may face unregistered advisers providing or even advertising tax (financial) advice services, the TPB said.
However, commenting on the finding, compliance consultant Brett Walker of Smart Compliance said the lack of renewals is an example of “common sense” prevailing.
“I can only conclude that some of these people have determined that they don’t meet the tests clearly set out in the explanatory memoranda to the legislation,” Mr Walker told ifa.
Mr Walker has long contended that the TPB and other stakeholders such as industry associations representing advisers have been over-estimating the number of advisers actually required to register with the authority.
I’ve already given them $1,200. $400 for myself, $400 for my business and $400 for my AFSL…greedy buggers.what do we get for $400 bucks a year…….nothing.
Me too. It sucks. What a money grab. Tax by stealth.
So the Board overseeing tax advice got their numbers wrong? #irony
The TPB systems are completely hopeless
I doubt if they actually know who is registered and who is not
Because 100% of Advisers, have seen 0% value in this new added cost to business,
Maybe, just maybe we should have some commonsense here. What has happened over the past few years? Accountants have been told to become financial advisers and none/few have done it. The CPA charged in to Financial planning and shot it’s face off, Advisers have been told to register for TASA and many are lapsing. Perhaps instead of regulators on both sides trying to fit square pegs in round holes and everyone outside of both industries thinking we’re all the same we look at some common sense solutions??? No.. Ok, well.. I tried.
My dealer group is a tax adviser and they oversee any tax advice provided by me. There is a comment in the SOA that the elements of this SOA that relate to tax have been developed by our licensee, Dover Financial Advisers Pty Ltd. Dover is a registered tax (financial) adviser.
This is much better than me doing a half baked course. Having them review my SOAs and do the tax work is the best way to go IMO.
What a cop out, I have little respect for Dover as it is.
Is this really the Dover position? I thought the main idea of TPB registration for advisers was to cover incidental tax advice provided in the course of routine financial planning matters, not just specific tax advice. (eg pay for income protection outside super to get a tax deduction, own investment in the name of low income spouse for lower tax on earnings). Does Dover provide tax sign off on all those sorts of things?
This could also be due to the TPB not being able to assist accounting practices when this all came about. They were told to just register to ensure compliance. Those who do not run their FP business separately to their accounting business, do not have to be registered as “tax (financial) advisers as their registration as accountant is sufficient… This may account for some of the numbers.
Not many Accountants registered as a TFA. Those who were already registered with the TPB as Tax Agents already had the issue covered as you point out.
Having worked with those that got limited licenses, I can tell you first hand there were many that were told by the TPB to register as both, as the TPB did not understand the licensing regime at the time. As mentioned, if the practise splits their operations they do need both licenses….
For individuals that makes no sense.
Hey Jape, happy to share my reasoning with you if you want to get in touch – brett@fsi.net.au
My Accounting degree is apparently “too old” – I need to do another course to get this. Yer… NAH
I renewed before the expiry date but the online register says something like “awaiting processing”.
I wonder how many of the “non renewals” are actually “TPB hasn’t got around to processing yet”?
Smart man Mr Walker.
Watching this issue with interest – but my TPB registration is renewed to 2020. Clearly as Advisers we give “tax (financial) advice” as outlined in 90-15 (1) (a) and (b). Not sure where Brett is at with this. Several hundred Advisers have bailed on the Industry so that will be some of the 2748 non renewals. So the TPB may likely need to reconcile to the FAR records.