TaxBlog

Inland Revenue will get more say over who is fit to be a tax agent under new powers proposed in a Government discussion paper.

The paper reviews tax compliance and penalty rules and suggests relaxing some penalties where there has been genuine consistent attempts to meet the rules, while extending others.

It proposes tougher criteria and scrutiny for tax agents, with the IRD Commissioner getting the discretion to bar an agent to protect the integrity of the tax system.

Potential grounds for disqualification may include a history of non-compliance in an agent’s own tax affairs, any convictions for dishonesty, breaches of professional rules, and bankruptcy or insolvency.

At the moment IRD has only limited restrictions on who can be a tax agent, and cannot refuse a listing even if an agent has a long record of tax breaches or has been convicted of serious dishonesty offences.

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This is an interesting story from America about how the Senators on the Finance and House Ways and Means committees pay tax agents to complete their tax returns.

Even more interesting is some of their comments:

“It’s onerous and everybody knows it,” said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.

Isn’t that like kicking yourself in the head? One of the few people who can change the tax system is saying that he doesn’t like it.

How about this one for stupid quote of the week:

Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., does not do his own returns, but he agreed it might be a good idea to try. “I think it is important that we operate in the real world,” he said.

He’s saying he’s not in the real world? No, no he’s in political world.

And to top it off:

“This… is truly revolutionary because no one can remember the last time a member of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee actually completed their own tax return”

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