The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has taken disciplinary action against specialist SMSF accounting firm SuperGuardian, having found the organisation breached the body’s Code of Professional Conduct.
Specifically, the TPB determined SuperGuardian had breached subsection 30-10(7) of the Code of Professional Conduct in the Tax Agent Services Act 2009.
“The TPB found that [SuperGuardian] had failed to provide an adequate level of supervision and control of employee Jason Poser, which allowed him to misappropriate more than $2.9 million from 86 self-managed superannuation fund clients in 100 transactions between October 2019 and August 2022,” the industry body stated.
It was, however, recognised, as part of the ruling, the organisation had reimbursed all of its clients who had lost money as a result of Poser’s behaviour and had taken multiple actions to mitigate the consequences of the code of conduct breach.
The TPB also noted the adverse effect the situation had caused the Adelaide-based accounting firm.
Stemming from the breach, the TPB invoked section 30-20 of the Tax Agent Services Act and imposed several sanctions on SuperGuardian.
Firstly, it determined the company must keep reviewing and updating its policies and procedures to ensure they are fit for purpose and will help prevent a similar situation from recurring.
Secondly, the TPB is requiring SuperGuardian to provide appropriate training measures every six months to educate staff about compliance with its own code of conduct, as well as that of the professional body, whistleblowing activities and any other relevant policies.
And finally, the accounting firm must “provide a compliance statement to the TPB every six months for the next two years, confirming it has complied with the above requirements and providing the details of training provided and the names of the staff who were trained”.
The ruling also stipulated that no disqualifications were recorded as part of the investigation into the code of conduct breach.
In response to the TPB ruling SuperGuardian stated: “Concerningly, activities of this nature are common and are not limited to SuperGuardian or the SMSF industry, so we are pleased to see the recent interim report by the Inspector-General of Taxation and Taxation Ombudsman that has called for a range of ATO improvements that, if adopted, will make it difficult for fraudsters to take advantage of weaknesses that allow them to illegally direct money into their own hands.”
The SMSF Association confirmed it had taken away Poser’s standing as a specialist member around 12 months ago in relation to the same matter.
“We became aware at that time Jason Poser was in breach of the professional conduct required of him as an SMSF Association member. He was obligated to notify us of that breach, but that didn’t occur. Subsequently he was issued with a show cause notice, but he did not respond to it and so his membership was rescinded,” association chief executive Peter Burgess told selfmanagedsuper.
“It’s worth noting the activity in question related to an issue that is relevant to the entire finance industry and not just SMSFs.
“We continue to work with the industry and the ATO on strengthening system controls.”
