The tax profession's response to the recent review of the TPB, the TASA 2009 Code of Professional Conduct, investigations, and related sanctions.

A much anticipated review of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) and Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (Cth) was released by the Australian Treasury in October 2019 detailing 28 recommendations with regard to the operation and function of the TPB. The government responded to those recommendations supporting 20 in part, full or principle, while rejecting eight. This study gathers the views and insights of 20 Australian tax practitioners via semi-structured interviews, as to their acceptance or otherwise of the recommendations. Interview data provides evidence surrounding the Code of Professional Conduct, investigations, sanctions and safe harbour recommendations. We find that whilst in many cases practitioners both agreed and disagreed with particular recommendations, preliminary or indicative themes emerged which complicated perceptions and warrant further investigation. These preliminary or indicative themes have the potential to impact perceptions and agreement with the TPB recommendations and raise questions as to whether recommendations will ultimately achieve their objectives. Practically, the findings of this study feed into the tax policy debate, by providing insights and information to the Tax Practitioner Governance and Standards Forum and Professional Standards Council. This study answers a call for further research into tax practitioners' attitudes and behaviour and adds to the limited existing empirical literature in this space. Importantly, the research findings have the capacity to potentially break new ground in determining whether the review's recommendations will achieve their objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]