The country’s top accounting bodies (no, not PwC!) but the likes of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, CPA Australia and others, think the Albanese Government has gone too far in bringing all accountants to book!
In a letter published in The Australian, the group noted its support for reforms “that strengthen the accounting profession” but said current proposals could see accountants reveal mental health challenges and “could also force tax practitioners to publicise investigations into complaints against them no matter how spurious or vexatious … This is not just an issue for nearly 72,000 tax professionals and their families, but millions of Australians and small businesses that rely on their services”.
These changes did follow the revelation that PwC had behaved badly but the accounting groups have argued that Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones had ignored good legal advice on the subject. “Many of our members have also written to their local parliamentary member explaining why the rules are not only unfair but incredibly difficult to implement because they are so broad and open to interpretation,” said CAANZ chief executive Ainslie van Onselen.
Jones thinks the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) will kill the confusion the law has created but van Onselen thinks this is a second rate alternative to a better law in black and white.
The TPB is as mad as hell and hellbent to clean up the dirty deeds that got PwC into trouble and decimated this once top brand name and business. Worst still, it has cast a black cloud over the profession, so you can understand why the Government and the TPB are fired up.
The Australian’s David Ross reports that “The TPB has already hit PwC’s former head of international tax, Peter Collins, with deregistration and a two-year ban on reapplying for his licence. [And] PwC Australia and members of its tax practice may face harsher penalties from a fired-up Tax Practitioner Board, which is set to focus on the professional services giant over its use of confidential briefings to shape aggressive tax minimisation strategies”.
Given the disappointment this whole PwC incident has created and the current falling popularity of the PM and his government, it’s unlikely that there’ll be changes to make accountants happy.
That said, there could be 72,000 accountants in this country who might become anti-Labor. And these people do have a lot of clients who could be influenced come election time!
