CPA saga ‘spooks’ TPB approvals

Under the Tax Agent Services Regulations, financial advisers that offer “tax (financial) advice” will need to be members of a “professional association” recognised by the TPB before 1 January 2018.

AIOFP executive director Peter Johnston has told delegates to the association’s national conference on Hamilton Island that external events have held up the AIOFP’s application, which was filed in May 2017. 

“The primary problem has been the CPA and [former CPA CEO Alex Malley] fiasco combined with the fraud relating to [former ATO deputy commissioner] Michael Cranston,” Mr Johnston explained. “The ATO is the regulator of the TPB and they have been spooked into an extreme bureaucratic mode.”

The association also needed to undergo some constitutional changes before it could be eligible for application, such as switching from practice to individual membership. 

Now that the constitutional changes have been approved and external distractions for the ATO are in the past, the AIOFP is hopeful of approval prior to the impending deadline, Mr Johnston said.

“This will be very important for the many independent financial advisers who need to comply with the TASR regime but don’t want to join the AFA or FPA,” He told ifa.

The FPA and AFA were both accredited in 2015 following the introduction of the regime. 

ifa understands that as many as 28 separate associations are in various stages of application for TPB professional association recognition.