ATO identifies miscreant tax agents
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has identified around 1,600 tax agents who it believes are responsible for the majority of its problems with respect to late returns.
The issue has been highlighted by the Commissioner for Taxation, Michael D'Ascenzo, who has told an accountancy forum that some tax agents are doing a much better job of ensuring their clients are covered than others.
He said there were around 21,000 agents lodging around 11.5 million 2010 financial year income tax returns, but "a small minority of tax agents are associated with a significant level of non compliance by clients".
D'Ascenzo said that around 1,600 tax agents represented half the taxpayers who use agents and had outstanding returns, while 1,900 tax agents represent 50 per cent of the taxpayers who were significantly outside the small business benchmarks.
The Tax Commissioner also claimed 1,600 agents (with more than 100 clients) were identified as having an unusually high level of claims for work-related expenses.
"Many of these agents fall within two or three of these categories," he said. "We want to understand how we can better support tax agents generally so that you can positively influence the behaviours of your clients."
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