Cerrah and Tax Practitioners Board (Taxation)

This matter concerned an appeal by Ms Cerrah against a decision of the Tax Practitioners Board to terminate her registration as a tax agent and impose a five-year prohibition on applying for re-registration. The dispute arose from alleged contraventions of the Code of Professional Conduct, including failures to manage her personal tax affairs and complete supervised training. The decision was made by Reitano M.

The primary legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the Tax Practitioners Board had correctly found that Ms Cerrah had breached the Code of Professional Conduct, and if so, whether the sanction of terminating her registration and prohibiting her from applying for re-registration for five years was appropriate. The alleged breaches included dishonesty and lack of integrity in her declarations to the Board regarding outstanding tax obligations and continuing professional development, as well as non-compliance with taxation laws in relation to her personal tax affairs, including the non-lodgement of tax returns and the receipt of an inflated social security benefit.

Reitano M found that Ms Cerrah had indeed breached the Code of Professional Conduct on multiple grounds. These included failing to act with honesty and integrity by declaring she had no outstanding tax obligations when she did, failing to comply with taxation laws by not lodging returns for several years and not declaring all assessable income, and misrepresenting her completion of continuing professional education requirements. While Ms Cerrah attributed some of these failures to carelessness or a lack of awareness of outstanding debts, the Tribunal found that her conduct demonstrated a pattern of dishonesty and non-compliance.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision to terminate Ms Cerrah's registration but varied the period of prohibition from applying for re-registration. Instead of five years, the prohibition was reduced to four years. The Tribunal noted that this period would provide Ms Cerrah with an opportunity to undertake activities that might enable her to demonstrate to the Board that she is a fit and proper person to be registered should she seek it again after the preclusion period.