Govt grants breathing space on TASA bill

The financial planning industry has secured breathing space on the Tax Agents Services Act (TASA) legislation with the Assistant Treasurer, David Bradbury, agreeing to defer the legislation.

The FPA has welcomed the minister's move, which amounts to him removing the relevant schedules 3 and 4 from the Tax Laws Amendment Bill 2013 and then referring them to the Parliamentary Joint Committee for inquiry.

The move has been welcomed by the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Senator Mathias Cormann, who said it was precisely what the Coalition had been arguing for.

The Government's move on the legislation, which was the first item on the parliamentary notice paper today, followed on from the Financial Planning Association (FPA) having dismissed claims by the major accounting bodies that it is seeking to unnecessarily delay the implementation of the TASA legislation.

Responding to a joint statement by CPA Australia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants suggesting that a further delay to the implementation was both unnecessary and would serve to confuse consumers, FPA chief executive Mark Rantall suggested this misrepresented the reality of the situation.

"Whilst the FPA has been working with Government for the last three years on TASA and has received two extensions during that time, it is only recently that Treasury, the Tax Practitioners Board and other industry stakeholders have become involved to work through the detail of a new Tax Agents category," he said.

Rantall said this work was not complete and had not been finalised in terms of the detail.

"I acknowledge that the accountants have a vested interest in pushing this through; however it is inappropriate to rush legislation without industry stakeholders being comfortable that there are no unintended consequences," he said.

Rantall said that given the matter had been outstanding for three years and there had been no demonstrated consumer detriment, it was reasonable to ask for an extension to sort through the detail.