Schedules 3 and 4 of the Tax Laws Amendment (Measures No.2) Bill 2013, which contain measures that would require financial planners to register as tax agents with the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB), were sent to the parliamentary joint committee (PJC) for an inquiry last Thursday.
The news came after a week of ‘will they, won’t they’ back-and-forth in the House of Representatives.
Earlier in the week, the three major accounting bodies were highly critical of the financial planning sector’s attempts to “walk away” from the TASA amendments.
Institute of Chartered Accountants general manager of leadership and quality Yasser El-Ansary said calls to defer the introduction of the regulatory framework jeopardised “much needed consumer protection”.
“Financial planners must not walk away from these vitally important reforms now, at this eleventh hour,” said Mr El-Ansary.
CPA Australia head of policy Paul Drum argued that the new regulatory framework had been in development for over three years, with “extensive consultation with all stakeholders”.
Mr Drum said the decision to delay the passage of the Bill was “a missed opportunity to deliver better outcomes and better protections for consumers of financial advice”.
But the Financial Planning Association (FPA) welcomed the news the TASA amendment had been sent to the PJC as a “win both for common sense and due process”.
FPA general manager for policy and conduct Dante De Gori said financial planners were already licensed and regulated by the Australian Investments and Securities Commission (ASIC) when it came to personal financial advice – which includes tax advice.
“Scaremongering by accounting bodies on this issue has been misleading and unhelpful,” said Mr De Gori.
Australian Unity head of financial advice Craig Meldrum decried the “distracting and unhelpful criticism of the advice profession from some sectors”.
Such criticism fails to focus on why planning associations have been lobbying for more time to implement the changes, he said.
The Tax Practitioners Board is “very much in the dark” when it comes to the implementation of the measures, as well as the practicalities of registering 55,000 representatives, authorised representatives and licensees in the three-year transition period, said Mr Meldrum.
The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) also welcomed the deferral of the amendment, and urged the government to extend the carve-out for financial advisers to 30 June 2014.
AFA chief operating officer Phil Anderson said the TASA amendments were “flawed”.
“There was both a lack of adequate consultation and seriously insufficient time for implementation,” he said.
Both the AFA and the FPA denied that they had “walked away” from the reform.
“The AFA accepts that financial advisers will come under the TASA regime, however it needs to be done in a way that allows for appropriate consultation and sufficient time for implementation,” said Mr Anderson.
