Treasury names 3 members to bolster TPB
The appointments of two lawyers and one tax professor aim to bring a “diversity of skills and experience” to the board.
Treasury has moved to strengthen the TPB’s capabilities by adding three members to the board on Tuesday.
Assistant treasurer Stephen Jones named lawyers Simone Carton and Phillip Davies as well as tax professor Kerrie Sadiq to serve as part-time members of the TPB.
Their appointments expand the board from eight to 11 members.
Mr Jones said his appointments brought a “diversity of skills and experience” to add to the board’s capabilities.
“These appointments will continue the high level of skills and experience available to the TPB, to help ensure that the key sectors of our economy are effectively regulated,” he said.
Ms Sadiq is a professor of taxation at Queensland University of Technology and editor for the Australian Tax Review.
Her appointment would make her the only academic on the board, having published extensively on profit shifting policy and addressing multinational tax avoidance. Ms Sadiq also chaired the Tax Institute’s academic board from 2020 to 2023.
Ms Simone is a lawyer who is the CEO of the Law Society of NSW and is described as a “governance professional”, according to Mr Jones’s statement. Between 1996 and 2004, she worked at KPMG as an indirect tax manager.
Mr Davies is the CEO and tolling customer ombudsman of TCO Limited, a dispute resolution provider for toll road users. He is also the deputy chair of the Financial Planning Association of Australia’s conduct review commission. He was a senior partner at the law firm King & Wood Mallesons for 13 years.
The TPB is responsible for overseeing over 60,000 tax agents and administering the Tax Agent Services Regulations Act and Code of Professional Conduct. It received over $30 million in funding over four years from the federal budget to increase its investigations and compliance activities.
The appointments of Ms Carton, Mr Davies and Ms Sadiq are the first under the Albanese government.
They come in the wake of the PwC tax leak scandal, triggered by a TPB investigation in March 2021.
In December, the TPB deregistered PwC’s former head of international tax, Peter-John Collins, for leaking confidential government briefings on multinational profit shifting to colleagues and clients.
The TPB’s members feature three Big 4 alumni, appointed by former assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar, who also worked for PwC between 2005 and 2006.
Mr Sukkar has been responsible for appointing seven of the board’s eight members, including two former PwC partners, Judy Sullivan and Peter Hogan, and former KPMG tax partner Peter de Cure.
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