Welcome to the second edition of the Guide for tax intermediaries: Good governance and promoter penalty laws. We co-designed this guide with the Promoter Penalty Laws Sub-committee of the National Tax Liaison Group. We have also updated the content, taking into account feedback from industry and the professions and lessons learned from our program of governance visits and compliance cases since the first edition was released in April 2011.
Since the publication of the first edition of this guide, Federal Court proceedings have been initiated under the promoter penalty laws on several more serious cases, with more potential cases currently under investigation. We expect that the litigation process and the decisions in these early cases will provide further practical insights into the operation of these laws, which will be incorporated into future editions of this guide.
Over the last year, we have also executed a range of voluntary undertakings with both smaller and larger entities involved in conduct potentially covered by these laws, where they have taken prompt action to self-correct. To support this process and to respond to feedback from industry, we have expanded the commentary about the voluntary undertaking process and examples of terms that we have agreed so far.
Building upon our practical experience in real cases, we have also provided additional guidance on issues such as the risks of mistakenly thinking that a position is reasonably arguable; advisers managing the use of their advice by third parties; and enhancing disclosure of tax risks to investors in widely-offered financial products.
I hope that this edition of the guide will continue to help you to better understand promoter penalty risks and how to manage them through good governance processes.
Bruce Quigley
Second Commissioner, Compliance
Last Modified: Wednesday, 9 January 2013