Tax Agent Services Act 2009
The Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA) is legislation that establishes the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) and provides for the registration and regulation of tax and business activity statement (BAS) agents. It aims to ensure both tax and BAS agents’ services are provided to a professional standard in accordance with ethical conduct.
The Tax Agent Services Regulations 2022 (TASR) 1contains the qualifications and experience requirements for registration as a tax agent and BAS agent, the application fees payable and the requirements to become a recognised tax agent and BAS agent.
The TPB is a national government body responsible for the registration and regulation of tax practitioners. Tax practitioners include both Tax Agents and BAS Agents.
The role of the TPB is to:
- administering a system to register tax practitioners, ensuring they have the necessary competence and personal attributes
- providing guidelines and information on relevant matters
- investigating conduct that may breach the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA), including non-compliance with the Code of Professional Conduct (Code), and breaches of the civil penalty provisions
- imposing administrative sanctions for non-compliance with the Code
- applying to the Federal Court about contraventions of the civil penalty provisions in the TASA.
Anyone providing tax agent or BAS services for a fee or other reward must register with the TPB.
Tax agent
- Provide tax advice
- lodge tax returns
- deal with ATO on behalf of clients in relation to PAYG, GST, PAYGI and income tax matters
BAS agent
- Provide tax advice
- lodge business activity statements
- deal with the ATO on behalf of clients in relation to PAYG and GST matters
These services include:
In this module, we will only be covering the registration and scope of payroll services that a BAS agent can provide.
To register as a BAS agent, you need to meet specific criteria. There are two pathways for registration depending on your qualifications and experience.
Path 1 - Accounting qualifications
Primary Qualification:
- at least a certificate IV financial services in bookkeeping or accounting from a registered training organisation (RTO)
- certificate in financial services in bookkeeping or accounting (above Cert IV qualification) from an RTO or recognised tertiary institution
TPB-approved course in GST and BAS taxation principles:
- may be included in your primary qualification but must be listed on your academic transcript
- obtained through recognition of prior learning
- Relevant experience:
- 1,400 hours in the past four years
- relevant experience can include working as a BAS agent, working under the control of a registered BAS agent or other experienced approved by the TPB
Path 2 - Professional association membership
Primary Qualification:
- at least a certificate IV financial services in bookkeeping or accounting from a registered training organisation (RTO)
- certificate in financial services in bookkeeping or accounting (above Cert IV qualification) from an RTO or recognised tertiary institution
TPB-approved course in GST and BAS taxation principles:
- may be included in your primary qualification but must be listed on your academic transcript
- obtained through recognition of prior learning
Voting membership of a recognised BAS or tax agent association
Relevant experience:
- 1,000 hours in the past four years
- relevant experience can include working as a BAS agent, working under the control of a registered BAS agent or other experienced approved by the TPB.
In addition to meeting the qualification and experience requirements, you must be:
- at least 18 years of age
- able to maintain professional indemnity insurance
- able to demonstrate you are a fit and proper person.
Maintaining registration
To maintain your BAS agent registration you must complete an annual declaration to demonstrate and provide assurance to the TPB that you meet the ongoing registration requirements, including:
- having professional indemnity insurance cover
- undertaking continuing professional education
- satisfying fit and proper requirements
- meeting your personal tax obligations.
The Code of Professional Conduct (Code) regulates BAS agents' personal and professional conduct.
The Code has five underlying principles:
You must act honestly and with integrity. You must comply with the taxation laws in the conduct of your personal affairs. You must account to your client for the money or other property if you:
- receive money or other property from or on behalf of a client, and
- hold the money or other property on trust.
You must act lawfully in the best interests of your client.
You must have in place adequate arrangements for the management of conflicts of interest that may arise in relation to the activities that you undertake in the capacity of a registered BAS agent.
You must act lawfully in the best interests of your client.
Unless you have a legal duty to do so, you must not disclose any information relating to a client’s affairs to a third party without your client’s permission.
You must act lawfully in the best interests of your client.
You must ensure that BAS services that you provide, or that is provided on your behalf, is provided competently.
You must maintain knowledge and skills relevant to the BAS services that you provide.
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 a client.
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.
You must act lawfully in the best interests of your client.
You must not knowingly obstruct the proper administration of the taxation laws.
You must advise your client of the client’s rights and obligations under the taxation laws that are materially related to the BAS services you provide.
You must maintain the professional indemnity insurance that the Board requires you to maintain.
You must respond to requests and directions from the Board in a timely, responsible and reasonable manner.
To read more about the Code of Professional Conduct access the TPB's Explanatory Paper on interpreting the Code contained in Division 30 of the TASA.
A BAS service is defined in the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA) as:
- ascertaining or advising about the liabilities, obligations or entitlements of a client under a BAS provision
- representing a client in their dealings with the Commissioner of Taxation about a BAS provision
- 2where it is reasonable to expect a client will rely on the service to satisfy liabilities or obligations or to claim entitlements under a BAS provision.
In addition, registered legislative instruments allow BAS agents to:
- 2provide advice and assist eligible businesses to claim their entitlements under the JobKeeper Payment and Cashflow support for business initiatives
- provide certain services, including in relation to the superannuation guarantee (SG) and superannuation guarantee charge (SGC).3
Failing to comply with the Relevant Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and Tax Practitioner Board (TPB) requirements, including TPB registration requirements and the Code of Professional Conduct, could result in civil penalty provisions and/or administrative sanctions.
The issues are separated into two categories.
- Conduct that is prohibited without registration
- Conduct of registered BAS agents
A civil penalty is a financial penalty in a civil rather than criminal jurisdiction. State and Commonwealth government bodies can apply to the courts to have a fine imposed against an entity for breaching a civil penalty provision in some circumstances.
Civil penalties do not include criminal convictions or imprisonment.
The Federal Court has the power to impose penalties of up to $55,500 for individuals and $277,500 for corporations for each breach.
Additional information can be found on these TCB websites:
Complete the following activities:
- Research the scope of payroll services a BAS agent provides.
- Download the Services Offered by a BAS Agent activity sheet, save it to your desktop and enable editing.
- Identify which services can be offered by a BAS agent providing payroll services.
- When you have completed the activity check your answers by expanding the titles below.
A BAS agent can:
- apply to the Registrar for an ABN on behalf of a client
- confirm figures to be included in a client's activity statement
- provide advice about the withholding tax obligations for the employees of a client
- provide services declared to be a BAS service by way of a legislative instrument issued by the TPB
- prepare and provide a client with an income statement that may include reportable fringe benefits amounts and the reportable employer superannuation contributions
- register or provide advice on registration for PAYG withholding
- provide services under the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 to the extent that they relate to a payroll function or payments to contractors
- advise about an SGC liability, including calculating the liability and preparing the SGC statement
- advise about the offsetting of late payments of superannuation contributions against the SGC
- complete the late payment offset election section of an SGC statement
- represent a client in their dealings with the ATO relating to the SGC, lodge SGC statements, be an authorised contact relating to SG and SGC, and access these accounts in the ATO's online services for BAS agents
- be an authorised contact with the ATO for payment arrangements relating to SGC account
- be an authorised contact with the ATO for requesting penalty remissions relating to SGC
- be an authorised contact for any audit or review activity undertaken by the ATO relating to SGC
- determine and report the superannuation guarantee shortfall and associated administrative fees
- deal with superannuation payments made through a clearing house
- complete and lodge the Taxable payments annual report to the ATO on behalf of a client
- send a TFN declaration to the Commissioner on behalf of a client
- provide a payroll service that involves interpreting and applying a BAS provision, including reporting employee payroll information through STP-enabled software
- undertake a payroll compliance review, providing an assessment and/or opinion on whether the client is compliant with one or more BAS provisions
- determine eligibility, provide advice and assist eligible clients in electing to participate in the JobKeeper Payments scheme
- determine eligibility and advise and assist eligible clients with their Cashflow boost entitlements
- determine eligibility and advise and assist eligible clients in claiming the JobMaker Hiring Credit.
A BAS agent cannot:
- install computer accounting software without determining default GST and other codes tailored to the client
- provide general training in computerised accounting payroll software
- prepare bank reconciliations for a client
- enter data without involvement in or calculation of figures to be included on a client's activity statement
- advise about claiming an allowable tax deduction for superannuation contribution
- advise about superannuation contribution caps and the effect of exceeding those caps
- advise on salary sacrificing arrangements and salary packaging
- advise about fringe benefits tax laws
- advise about preparing and/or lodging income tax returns
- transmit data to the Commissioner through single touch payroll (STP) enabled software, where the data transmission does not require the interpretation or application of a BAS provision.
