The Federal Court ruled that Kent Scott Hacker contravened the Tax Agent Services Act (TASA) by providing tax agent services and BAS services without holding a registration with the Tax Practitioners Board.
In November 2018, the ATO raided the offices of Mr Hacker’s business, One Stop Global Staffing, and discovered evidence indicating that it had been preparing and lodging income tax returns unlawfully for thousands of taxpayers.
The TPB began investigating the matter and in February 2019 brought proceedings before the Federal Court seeking both civil penalties and an interim injunction. Following this, Mr Hacker and his companies gave an undertaking to the court that they would cease their activity.
Despite this undertaking, and a later court order to display large notices at the OSGS office warning taxpayers of the risk of using Mr Hacker’s services, Mr Hacker carried on providing tax agent services, often to unsuspecting clients.
“It is quite extraordinary that each time Mr Hacker admitted to being in contempt of court, he went on to unlawfully lodge additional income tax returns for clients,” said chair of the TPB, Ian Klug.
“We would urge anyone paying for tax agent services, particularly during this tax-time, to be suspicious of the promise of large tax refunds and check the TPB register to ensure the legitimacy of their agent’s registration.”
Mr Klug urged taxpayers to refrain from sharing their myGov password with anyone as doing so puts their personal and financial information at risk.
The Court will hold a further hearing on 28 September 2020 to decide on penalties. Mr Klug is looking forward to the Court imposing an appropriate penalty, reflective of the scale of Mr Hacker’s unlawful conduct.
“The right decision will not only address Mr Hacker’s misconduct, but it will strengthen the integrity of our tax system by sending a strong deterrence message to other rogue advisers,” he said.
