{"id":21323,"date":"2013-06-11T14:49:50","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T04:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=21323"},"modified":"2013-06-19T07:30:40","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T21:30:40","slug":"accountants-and-advisers-divided-on-tasa-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2013\/06\/11\/accountants-and-advisers-divided-on-tasa-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Accountants and Advisers Divided on TASA Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not everyone is supportive of the delay to the proposed Tax Agent Services Act (TASA)\u00a0reforms, as the legislation heads to a Parliamentary Committee for review this week.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The three major Australian accounting bodies have issued statements accusing financial advice bodies of standing in the way of provisions which would lift the professional standards of financial planners. The comments come in response to the House of Representatives\u2019 decision to send tax reform legislation to the Parliamentary Joint Committee for Corporations and Financial Services (PJC) for review (see: Government Grants TASA Reprieve<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The decision to refer the legislation was met with grateful support by both the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and Association of Financial Advisers (AFA). In contrast, the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAA), CPA Australia and the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) have labelled the move counter-productive and a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n

CPA Australia\u2019s Head of Policy, Paul Drum<\/strong>, said the amendments proposed in the legislation were designed to put in place appropriate protections for consumers dealing with financial advisers.<\/p>\n

Parliament\u2019s decision means that there will continue to be shortcomings in the standards that apply to the provision of tax advice from financial planners<\/h6>\n

\u201cConsumers deserve to have access to the highest standards of professional advice from financial planners, which is what this new regulatory framework is aimed at delivering. Parliament\u2019s decision means that there will continue to be shortcomings in the standards that apply to the provision of tax advice from financial planners,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prior to the decision to send the legislation for review, IPA CEO, Andrew Conway<\/strong>, said the group fundamentally believed that anyone providing tax advice should do so to the same professional and ethical standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that the financial services industry are seeking to defer the introduction of the new regulatory framework puts the public interest at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advisers took to social media to argue the contrary, with the majority saying existing regulation, overseen by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), provided appropriate consumer protection.<\/p>\n

Both sides of politics have also weighed in on the debate. Assistant Treasurer, David Bradbury<\/strong>, who tabled the Bill in Parliament earlier this month, accused the Coalition of abandoning consumer protection reforms.<\/p>\n

“Millions of Australians rely on the advice provided by their financial advisers on tax and investment decisions.<\/p>\n

“Consumers deserve to have confidence that there is appropriate accountability and transparency around the tax advice that they receive from financial advisers.<\/p>\n

“It is heartbreaking to hear about Australians who have lost money on the basis of incorrect advice from their financial adviser,\u201d Mr Bradbury said.<\/p>\n

The Coalition claimed victory on the move, and said it would ensure proper consultation between industry and the Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, this is not the first time the Gillard Government has desperately tried to avoid proper process on contentious legislation,\u201d said Senator Mathias Cormann<\/strong> in a statement to the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder pressure from the Coalition, Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury has been forced to see sense \u2013 albeit at the last possible moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnsuring good process in relation to major policy changes like this should not be this hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reforms will be discussed at a public hearing of the PJC in Sydney this week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not everyone is supportive of the delay to the proposed Tax Agent Services Act (TASA)\u00a0reforms, as the legislation heads to a Parliamentary Committee for review this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-compliance-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}