TPB update to boost practitioners’ control over publicly available contact details

The Tax Practitioners Board will now allow registered tax practitioners to control which of their contact details appear on public TPB registers, in a move to mitigate privacy concerns and data security risks.

On Wednesday (1 April), the TPB announced that registered tax practitioners would be able to choose which of their contact details would appear on their TPB record, and update them at any time through the online portal My Profile.

New applicants would also be prompted to choose which of their contact details were to be listed online, including business, residential and postal addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.

TPB chair Peter de Cure said the update would improve the balance between public transparency and practitioners' safety.

“This enhancement strikes the right balance between transparency for consumers and security for tax practitioners,” de Cure said.

“We know the TPB Public Register is heavily used, with around 1.5 million searches completed each year. These improvements ensure it remains a trusted and secure source of truth.”

The TPB said that this update aligned with the government’s broader focus on safeguarding personal information and reducing cyber security risks, including data scraping, phishing and other cases of data misuse.

It also introduced a CAPTCHA step for users accessing practitioner contact details in a move to further tighten up data security.

While this update would give practitioners greater flexibility over the public visibility of their contact details, the TPB noted that tax agents would still need to allow at least one contact detail to be published on the TPB register, under the Tax Agent Services Regulations 2022.