Suite 7 180-186 Argyle St Camden New South Wales 2570
Other records
Expiry date
01/07/2025
Condition
Sanctions
<strong>Period of Effect:</strong> 19/06/2023 to 19/08/2023<br/><strong>Reason:</strong> 30-20 Order[POPUP_FOR_DETAILS]<br/><strong>Code breach(es):</strong> <ul><li>30-10(1) - You must act honestly and with integrity</li><li>30-10(7) - You must ensure that a tax agent service that you provide, or that is provided on your behalf, is provided competently</li><li>30-10(9) - You must take reasonable care in ascertaining a client's state of affairs, to the extent that ascertaining the state of those affairs is relevant to a statement you are making or a thing you are doing on behalf of the client</li><li>30-10(10) - You must take reasonable care to ensure that taxation laws are applied correctly to the circumstances in relation to which you are providing advice to a client</li></ul><br/><strong>Explanation:</strong> On 1 June 2023, after completing an investigation into registered tax agent, Wards Accounting Group Pty Ltd, the Tax Practitioners Board (Board) decided that Wards Accounting Group Pty Ltd breached subsections 30-10(1), 30-10(7), 30-10(9) and 30-10(10) of the Code of Professional Conduct (the Code) in the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA).<br>The Board found that Wards Accounting Group Pty Ltd breached the Code by:<br>1. Failing to act honestly and with integrity by providing misleading statements in two renewal applications lodged with the Board.<br>2. Failing to ensure that a tax agent service that it provided, or that was provided on its behalf, was provided competently by failing to take reasonable care in the preparation and lodgement of income tax returns (ITRs) for 54 clients which were subject to Australian Taxation Office (ATO) compliance activities and were found to have included overclaimed, or incorrect, deduction claims that:<br>a. did not have sufficient nexus to assessable income, and/or<br>b. could not be adequately substantiated, and<br>c. resulted in tax shortfalls and shortfall penalties payable by clients<br>3. Failing to take reasonable care in ascertaining the state of affairs of 54 clients, to the extent that ascertaining the state of those affairs were relevant to statements it made in the ITRs returns of those individual clients<br>4. Failing to take reasonable care to ensure that the taxation laws were applied correctly to the circumstances in which it provided advice to 54 individual clients.<br><br>Taking into account all of the circumstances, the Board decided to impose an order under section 30-20 of the TASA, requiring Wards Accounting Group Pty Ltd to provide the Board with the following documents relating to individual ITRs:<br>1. A copy of its client questionnaire<br>2. A copy of its procedures<br>3. A copy of its checklists<br>4. A copy of its interview documents.<br>