FPA letter to all Parliamentarians on TASA

The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has kicked off its campaign to convince Federal Parliamentarians not to wave through the financial planning elements of the Tax Agents Services Act with a letter pointing to the unfinished nature of the legislation, including last-minute moves by Treasury.

The letter, signed by FPA chief executive Mark Rantall, was sent to all members of the House of Representatives and Senate. It urges the politicians "to oppose this legislation and grant a 12-month extension of the current exemption to allow the significant outstanding issues to be addressed".

The essence of the letter is the argument that "there are still significant issues with the Bill and regulatory requirements for financial planners, in part created by the last-minute consultation process undertaken by Treasury".

"By recommending this bill be passed unchanged against a dissenting Coalition report, key outstanding issues ignored by the PJC [Parliamentary Joint Committee] include (but are not limited to):

* An extremely broad definition of tax (financial) advice service which captures any tax advice service provided in circumstances in which an entity can reasonably expect to rely on it for tax purposes, where any form of payment has been received for that service.

* Issues of duplication with the Corporations Act, which have the potential to hinder consumer access to established and proved complaints mechanisms and compensation for inappropriate advice.

* The lack of set education and experience requirements which will, under this Bill, apply to all licensed financial services providers from bank tellers to stockbrokers.

* The Tax Practitioners Board capacity to register approximately 5, 027 licensed entities and 51,147 authorised representatives providing financial advice in Australia (not 8,000 as stated by Treasury in the PJC hearing on the Bill), within its current resources of 150 employees and just $100,000 of extra funding.

* How new entrants to the profession will be able to meet the experience requirements before registration.

"Further, on the day submissions to the PJC closed, Treasury released additional commercial law education requirements for planners. This was not part of the original requirements, and even the idea of these additional commercial law requirements was not raised in discussions with Treasury over the past three years," Rantall's letter said.

It said that to introduce additional requirements for planners two weeks from the commencement of the regime "is outrageous and again highlights the inappropriate last-minute consultation undertaken on the application of the Tax Agent Services regime to financial planners".

"There is a raft of legislation currently before Parliament. I cannot stress enough the impact the Tax Agent Services regime will have on planners and their clients. This Bill should not be part of the last-minute chaos to push through legislation in the final sitting days of the 43rd Parliament," Rantall's letter said.