The accounting profession has had 11 years of consultation around the Tax Agent Services Act including four years' consultation on the legislation, while the financial planning industry has had just five months to consider the new regime, according to Financial Services Council senior policy manager, Cecilia Storniolo.
Amid calls from both the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA), Storniolo has used a column in the upcoming edition of Money Management to detail just how compressed the TASA exercise has been for financial planners.
As well, she pointed out that the financial planning industry will not know if any of its recommendations have been incorporated into the TASA until the Bill and regulations are tabled in Parliament in the last two weeks of June 2013 — "14 days shy of them coming into effect".
"The accounting profession had 11 years of consultation on the creation of TASA and over four years consultation on the legislation," she said. "In contrast, the financial planning industry has had just five months to consider a new regime that will fundamentally impact how advice is given and the roles and responsibilities of advisers today and well into the future."
Earlier this week both FPA chief executive, Mar Rantall and AFA chief executive, Brad Fox argued that implementation of the TASA bill should be delayed at last until after the 14 September, Federal Election.
Fox said he believed the TASA legislation and its related requirements represented another burden for planners already struggling to be ready for the introduction of FOFA from 1 July.
