Insolvency practitioners cleared to provide tax and BAS agent services

 BAS, Corporate Insolvency, Insolvency practices, Personal Bankruptcy, Returns, Taxation Issues  Comments Off on Insolvency practitioners cleared to provide tax and BAS agent services
Jul 202012
 

Liquidators who provide a tax agent or BAS service to the company they are administering do not have to be registered as tax agents or BAS agents.

That is the ruling issued by the Tax Practitioners Board on 26 June 2012 in its Information Sheet TPB(1) 12/2012.

The same rule applies to most other types of insolvency practitioners appointed under the Corporations Act or the Bankruptcy Act.

CONDITIONS APPLY:

But the rule, or exemption, only applies to work done for the client after the insolvency practitioner’s appointment.  During the pre-appointment period the ban on unregistered persons providing a tax agent service or a BAS service for a fee or reward will apply.

The insolvency practitioners exempted under the ruling are liquidators, provisional liquidators, company administrators, administrators of deeds of company arrangement, receivers, receivers and managers, and bankruptcy trustees.

But the exemption might not apply to insolvency practitioners who act as agents for mortgagees in possession.  On one reading of the Information Sheet it seems that because such insolvency practitioners are not agents of the company (as are liquidators, administrators and receivers) then they might not be performing the tax/BAS agent services “in accordance with the duties and responsibilities of the insolvency practitioner under the terms of the relevant legislation” in a situation “analogous to that of a self-preparing entity”.  (See paras. 20 and 21.)

The Information Sheet also addresses the situation where, during the post-appointment period, an insolvency practitioner “bring(s) in outside consultants such as accountants or bookkeepers to deal with the entity’s tax or BAS issues”.  The Tax Practitioners Board says that such consultants would need to be registered.

In other words, the exemption only applies where the insolvency practitioners or his or her employees carry out the tax work.

To see the TPB Information Sheet CLICK HERE.

Jul 292011
 

NOTE: SUBMISSIONS CLOSED.  ALL PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW PUBLISHED ON THE TREASURY WEBSITE.  CLICK HERE TO VIEW OR COPY.  PJK 23/8/2011.

Want to make a submission regarding the Government’s important options paper on insolvency reform, titled “A modernisation and harmonisation of the regulatory framework applying to insolvency practitioners in Australia”?  Use my free template, available for download HERE.

This  simple table template, written with MS Office Word, lists the 135 discussion questions being raised in the options paper and provides space beside each question for your comments/opinions.  Just save the document to your computer,  fill it in and email it to the Treasury Department at insolvency@treasury.gov.auClosing date for submissions is 29 July 2011, but submissions soon after that date are likely to be accepted.

NOTE: submissions will be made public unless marked Confidential or Not for Publication.

The options paper in available at the Treasury website.