New TASA Code of Professional Conduct: What It Means for You

We would like to bring to your attention the changes to the Tax Agent Services Act (TASA) Code of Professional Conduct, effective from July 2025. These updates place additional obligations on tax and agents and have practical implications for how we work with you.

What’s Changing?

The TASA Code has been revised to strengthen professional standards and maintain public confidence in the tax system. The changes focus on areas such as ethical conduct, data security, client communication, and record-keeping.

Key Areas of Change

The main updates include:

Ethical Standards (s.10): Agents must act in ways that support confidence in the tax system.
False or Misleading Statements (s.15): Increased care to ensure accuracy in all information provided to the ATO and clients.
Conflicts of Interest (s.20): Requirement to identify and manage potential conflicts proactively.
Confidentiality (s.25): Stronger safeguards for protecting client and government information.
Proper Client Records (s.30): Agents must maintain comprehensive, accurate, and accessible records.
Competence of Staff (s.35): Responsibility for ensuring all staff and contractors are appropriately trained and supervised.
Quality Management Systems (QMS) (s.40): Implementation of structured systems to manage compliance and service delivery.
Keeping Clients Informed (s.45): Ensuring clients are regularly updated on relevant matters.

What Are We Doing?

To ensure compliance with these changes and continue delivering high-quality service, we have:

Enhanced internal policies and staff training to reinforce ethical conduct and accuracy.
Upgraded data security systems and record-keeping software to meet confidentiality requirements.
Strengthened conflict management procedures for transparency and client protection.
Introduced Karbon as our central platform for client communication and task management to improve efficiency and responsiveness.
Adopted a robust Quality Management System to support consistent and compliant service delivery.

What This Means for You

Benefits:

Greater transparency and confidence in how your tax affairs are handled.
Stronger data security and reduced risk of errors.
More consistent and timely communication regarding your matters.

Considerations:

Providing accurate and complete information promptly will help us meet these obligations effectively.

Note on Operating Environment and Its Impact on Fees.

While we strive to reduce the impact on fees to you from these changes, some changes have changed the way we operate for good. For example, when we have a meeting, we must keep very detailed records and prove the rationale behind the advise and keep a record of it. You might wonder whether we didn’t do it before? We did, but the extent, depth format etc are now legislative driven adding additional work for us. These changes have implications for the costs of doing certain engagements only. We will constantly monitor and proactively advise you on the implications of this, if any.

Also, there are breach reporting guidelines now all agents must report significant breaches to the government.

More info here

https://www.tpb.gov.au/faqs-code-determination

We are confident that these changes will further strengthen the quality, reliability, and security of the services we provide to you.