Tax Administration, Compliance and Ethics
Core framework
Tax administration covers registration, filing, payment, assessment, audit and dispute resolution. Compliance is not only timely filing; it includes accurate disclosure, record-keeping and professional ethics. Candidates must know the difference between tax avoidance (legal arrangement that may be counteracted) and tax evasion (illegal conduct involving deception).
Concepts to master
- Filing and payment deadlines, extensions and electronic filing.
- Assessments: self-assessment, default assessment and amended returns.
- Penalties and interest for late filing, late payment and inaccuracy.
- Reasonable care, disclosure and the taxpayer's right to appeal.
- Record retention and information powers.
- Professional ethics: integrity, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, money-laundering reporting and not assisting evasion.
Common traps
Questions often confuse the penalty for filing late with the penalty for paying late. An amended return may reduce a penalty only if the disclosure is unprompted and timely. Confidentiality is not absolute: legal or regulatory reporting duties may override it. Do not treat a client's instruction as a defence for signing a false return.
Worked example
A return due on 30 April is filed 20 days late. If the fixed penalty is 100 plus 10 per day after the first day, the penalty is 100 + (19 × 10) = 290, before any tax-geared penalty. The trap is charging daily penalties from day one or confusing the filing penalty with late-payment interest.
Rule of thumb
For every compliance question, identify the obligation, deadline, consequence and remedy in that order.