The Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) chief executive officer Andrew Conway is taking over as chairman at the Council of Small Business Australia (COSBOA).
The change was announced at the COSBOA annual general meeting yesterday.
Conway said the role would fit in with his role at the IPA as both are focused on the small business sector, a "critical contributor to the Australian economy".
"Many of our members are either small business people or they are practices serving the small business community," he said.
Tax commissioner Chris Jordan recently said over 60 per cent of the debt on the Australian Taxation Office's (ATO) books is owed by small business.
Jordan told a COSBOA conference over one million small businesses owed debts totalling over $11 billion in total.
"When a business accumulates a debt to us, we're usually not the only ones," he said.
"They may not pay their bills to other small businesses like yours. They may not pay super to their workers. Not only that, they are potentially operating with an unfair competitive advantage by not treating tax as an expense of their businesses."
The Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board (APESB) recently initiated the APES 230, the professional standard set for accountants to follow. The IPA delivered its own, alternative standard — Pronouncement 11 — which it said would give certainty to its members.
But the APESB said Pronouncement 11 represented a "lesser standard" and expected accounting bodies to support all APESB standards.
