TPB releases conflict of interest guidelines
Financial planners providing tax advice will have to adhere to the newly-released guidelines on managing conflicts of interest under the Tax Agent Services Act (TASA).
However, the requirements don't seem more stringent than those already imposed on financial planners by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), according to the Financial Planning Association (FPA) general manager for policy and conduct, Dante De Gori.
The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) released an information sheet which provides guidelines on how to manage conflicts of interest under TASA, which will encompass any financial planner providing tax advice from 1 July, 2014.
While there were no examples specifically relating to financial planners, the TPB stated the information sheet does not exhaust, prescribe or limit the scope of its powers under TASA.
According to the TPB, registered tax agents will have to apply at least one of the listed mechanisms to manage actual or potential conflicts of interest, such as avoiding them altogether, controlling and disclosing them.
Examples included in the sheet covered acting on behalf of both spouses in a marital break-up, servicing corporate clients that an agent has stake in and referring clients to business partners for commission payments.
Once financial planners are included under TASA later this year, the TPB might decide to review its guidelines and provide more specific rules and examples, De Gori said.
The FPA is currently working with the Tax Board on creating specific examples for financial planners if need be, but De Gori told Money Management there was nothing in the newly-released information sheet which needed clarifying.
De Gori reiterated the FPA's main focus is making sure the two regulators, ASIC and TPB, have synchronised requirements when it comes to overseeing financial planners.
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