The ATO and Tax Practitioners Board have warned tax practitioners of the consequences of failing to meet their own tax obligations. Recent ATO analysis reveals thousands of tax agents have unpaid obligations.

Speaking at a recent webinar, TPB chief executive Michael O’Neill said the latest statistics from September suggest that while most tax professionals are doing the right thing, a significant number of they fall behind on their debt and deposit obligations.

Statistics show there are 2,000 tax professionals who have outstanding tax debts exceeding $10,000 without an ATO payment plan.

The TPB also revealed there are around 5,000 tax practitioners with one or more outstanding ATO returns, including income tax returns and activity returns.

Within this group, around 700 tax practitioners have overdue ATO deposits and unpaid tax debts exceeding $10,000 without an ATO payment plan.

O’Neill said the unpaid tax debts owed by the tax practitioners were not disputed debts and were debts that had been self-assessed and included taxes such as PAYG withholding, GST and super. He also said failure to pay these debts could negatively impact workers’ retirement benefits.

O’Neill said the number of tax practitioners failing to meet their obligations was “far too high” and represents around 10 per cent of the population of registered tax practitioners.

He warned that when a tax professional fails to meet their obligations, that behavior can sometimes spill over into their clients’ businesses as well.

“Last December we issued a reminder to remind people of their obligations and it was great to see that many people updated their obligations,” O’Neill said.

“Since then we have been contacting practitioners with outstanding tax obligations directly, to find out if their deposits or debts are overdue and, again, we have seen a good response rate.

“If you have received correspondence and been engaged by the ATO or TPB, the worst thing you can do is ignore this nudge. The best thing you can do is engage with the ATO and the TPB. Where people engage with openness and transparency, they will always achieve better results.

Speaking at the same webinar, Adam O’Grady, ATO assistant commissioner for risk and strategy, acknowledged that while most tax practitioners are very compliant in terms of their tax affairs, a minority fail to not keep up to date with their obligations.

“Most tax groups are very compliant. If they have debts, they have agreements with us. Unfortunately, there is a small minority who are largely unaware of their payment or filing obligations and in many cases we “We’re also seeing poor accommodation in this agent’s customer base,” O’Grady said.

“This concerns us and we are looking to address not only the behavior of the customer, but also the behavior of the agent and how their attitude towards some of these issues reflects on their customer base.”