TPB Code of Professional Conduct: Advertising Rules

The Tax Practitioners Board's Code of Professional Conduct has no item about advertising. Registered agents' marketing falls under Code item 1 (honesty and integrity), item 6 (confidentiality) and the 2024 Code Determination. Advertising tax or BAS services without registration breaches the Tax Agent Services Act, and from 1 October 2026 can cost an individual up to 2,500 penalty units.

This guide is for partners, practice managers and BAS agents who write or approve their own marketing. It sets out what each rule says, where it comes from and what changed on 1 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice: check anything you plan to publish with the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) or your professional body. If you would rather hand the marketing over, that is what our accountant marketing service does.

What changed for tax practitioner advertising on 1 October 2026?

The penalties rose sharply. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Accountability for Tax Adviser Misconduct and Other Measures) Act 2026 received assent on 15 September 2026, and its changes to the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 apply to conduct from 1 October 2026. For an individual advertising tax or BAS services without registration, the maximum civil penalty is now fifty times what it was, and the same conduct can also be a criminal offence.

Source: Tax Practitioners Board, Enhancing the TPB's sanctions regime (last modified 21 September 2026), and the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 as amended by Act No. 86 of 2026, checked 1 October 2026. A penalty unit is a Commonwealth amount set under the Crimes Act 1914, so check its current dollar value before relying on a figure.

The TPB says it will take a measured, proportionate and risk-based approach, aimed at misconduct rather than at practitioners who already meet their obligations. For marketing the lesson is simpler: an ad that oversteps a registration, or a case study that discloses a client's affairs without permission, now has a far more expensive downside.

Which rules apply to accountants' and tax agents' marketing?

Six sets of rules overlap. Which ones bind you depends on whether you are registered with the TPB and which professional body you belong to.

Source: Tax Agent Services Act 2009; TPB Code of Professional Conduct pages; TPB symbol guidelines; APES 110 compiled as at July 2025; CA ANZ and CPA Australia public practice pages; ACCC guidance. All checked 1 October 2026.

Can you advertise tax or BAS services without TPB registration?

No. Under section 50-10 of the Tax Agent Services Act, advertising that you will provide a tax agent service is a civil penalty contravention unless you are a registered tax agent, and advertising BAS services is one unless you are a registered tax or BAS agent. Section 50-15 separately covers representing that you are registered when you are not. The TPB lists narrow exceptions, including employees doing the work for their own employer, some services by legal practitioners, and customs brokers providing BAS services on imports and exports.

Two traps are worth checking in your own marketing:

• A registered BAS agent advertising tax returns. The TPB's comparison of what each type of agent can do shows that preparing and lodging tax returns is for tax agents only, so a BAS agent's ad or page offering it advertises a tax agent service without the registration for it.
• An unregistered bookkeeper advertising BAS work. In the TPB's own examples, completing activity statements, payroll that applies tax law (including Single Touch Payroll reporting) and setting a client's default GST codes are BAS services. Data entry that needs no interpretation of tax law, and coding done under a registered agent's instruction and supervision, are not.

Our bookkeeper marketing page covers how to build keywords and pages around a BAS registration, and what to leave out without one.

What does the TPB Code of Professional Conduct say about marketing?

The Code has no advertising item, so the obligations that matter come from general ones. Four are worth reading with your marketing in mind, and a fifth, section 45, gets its own section below.

Code item 1: honesty and integrity

Item 1 requires registered agents to act honestly and with integrity. The TPB's guidance statement on the Code, TPB(GS) 01/2010, says these principles include a commitment not to mislead or deceive, and notes that making a false representation has been held inconsistent with the integrity required for registration. A claim you cannot back up is an honesty question before it is a marketing one.

Code item 6: confidentiality

Unless you have a legal duty to do so, you must not disclose information relating to a client's affairs to a third party without the client's permission. The TPB reads both halves broadly in TPB(GS) 26/2014: the information only has to relate to the client's affairs, and a third party is any entity other than you and the client, including contractors and cloud storage providers. That matters for case studies, testimonials, client logos on your website and client lists uploaded to ad platforms, covered further down.

Section 10 of the Code Determination: upholding the profession

Since 1 July 2025 for practices with 100 or fewer employees (1 January 2025 for larger ones), registered agents must uphold and promote the Code, and must not engage in conduct they know, or ought reasonably to know, may undermine public trust in the tax profession, including conduct that brings it into disrepute. In our reading, marketing that trades on fear of the ATO, or promises outcomes nobody can promise, sits uneasily with that duty.

Section 15: false or misleading statements

It is easy to assume this section covers advertising. It does not: section 15 deals with statements made to the TPB, the ATO or another Australian government agency. Misleading advertising is dealt with elsewhere, through item 1, section 10 and the Australian Consumer Law.

What must your website tell prospective clients?

If you are a registered tax or BAS agent, section 45 of the Code Determination requires you to give current and prospective clients certain information in writing, in a prominent, clear and unambiguous way. The TPB treats as a prospective client anyone who has contacted you about engaging you, by email, phone or website, but not someone making a general enquiry such as a question about price. You must tell them:

• that the TPB keeps a register of tax and BAS agents, and how to access and search it
• how to complain about a tax agent service, including the TPB's own complaints process
• general information about your rights, responsibilities and obligations under the tax laws, and the client's obligations to you
• any prescribed event in the last five years, such as a TPB suspension or termination, bankruptcy, certain convictions or a civil penalty order (events before 1 July 2022 are excluded)
• any conditions on your registration.

The TPB's guidance, TPB(GS) 54/2024, gives one way to comply: publish the information on the publicly accessible website you use to promote your services, include it in engagement and re-engagement letters, and give clients the TPB's information factsheet when they engage you. In practice that means a page covering the register, complaints and your obligations, linked from your site footer and your enquiry form, and kept up for as long as any prescribed event could matter to a client's decision.

How should you use the Registered tax practitioner symbol?

Exactly as the TPB's guidelines set out. The symbol is a certified trade mark the TPB licenses to registered tax and BAS agents who accept its terms and conditions of use. It is optional, but once you use it the rules are specific.

Source: TPB, Registered tax practitioner symbol guidelines and About the Registered tax practitioner symbol, both last modified 4 May 2026.

One detail matters if you use an agency. The guidelines bar supplying the symbol to an outside provider without the TPB's permission, unless that provider is helping you use it. A web designer placing the symbol on your own site is helping you use it.

What does APES 110 say about marketing?

If you belong to CA ANZ, CPA Australia or the Institute of Public Accountants, you also answer to APES 110, the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants issued by the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board. Paragraph R115.2 deals with marketing directly. When you market or promote your services you must not bring the profession into disrepute, you must be honest and truthful, and you must not make exaggerated claims about your services, qualifications or experience, or disparaging references or unsubstantiated comparisons to the work of others. Paragraph 115.2 A1 encourages members who are unsure about a form of advertising to ask their professional body. The wording is the same in the compiled version as at July 2025.

Confidentiality sits alongside it. Under R114.2 a member must not disclose confidential information gained through professional relationships, and the Australian exception in AUST R114.3 allows it where the client, or someone with authority, permits it and the law does not prohibit it. Written client permission is therefore the starting point for any case study.

Here is how R115.2 tends to play out in real copy. These are our illustrations, not rulings.

Source: Profit Geeks examples applying APES 110 R115.2 (compiled as at July 2025) and the Tax Agent Services Act 2009, October 2026. General information, not legal advice.

Can your firm use 'Chartered Accountants' or the CPA logo?

Only if the practice meets that body's structure rules. Searches for the logos are common: Keyword Planner shows 170 a month for 'cpa logo' and 140 for 'ca logo' in Australia (October 2026).

• CA ANZ: an Australian practice can describe itself as 'Chartered Accountants' and use the CA logo when it complies with Regulation CR9. Every principal must be a Chartered Accountant with a Certificate of Public Practice or an Affiliate member, Affiliates cannot outnumber the CAs with certificates, and Affiliates cannot control more than 50 percent of the practice. Australian members cannot put 'Chartered' or 'Chartered Accountants' in a registered company or business name, and a firm with non-member principals cannot use the description or logo unless those principals become Affiliates.
• CPA Australia: the CPA Public Practice logo, which is different from the CPA Australia logo, is available to public practice certificate holders whose practice meets the Majority Approved Practice Entity definition in the By-Laws, and CPA Australia's public practice team must approve the branded material before it is used.
• IPA: check the Institute of Public Accountants' own rules before using its designations or logo in firm branding.

Source: CA ANZ, Practice structures and using our brand; CPA Australia, Public Practice help. Both checked 1 October 2026.

Can you use client names, reviews and case studies?

Yes, with the client's permission and inside the consumer law. Four checks cover most situations:

1. Get permission before you disclose anything. The TPB's confidentiality guidance says to tell the client what will be disclosed and who will have access, then get their permission, for example through a signed engagement letter or consent. Naming a client in a case study, showing their logo or quoting their numbers all need it.
2. Treat marketing tools as third parties. Uploading client email lists to Google or Meta to build audiences, or giving an agency access to your CRM, is likely to disclose information relating to clients' affairs to another entity, so get the same permission first. From 1 October 2026 the TPB can issue infringement notices for breaches of Code item 6.
3. Keep reviews genuine. The ACCC says it is against the law to create fake or misleading reviews, that reviews from staff, family or people paid by the business need the connection disclosed, and that suppressing genuine negative reviews can mislead. Any incentive for a review must apply whether the review is positive or negative, and be disclosed.
4. Check privacy law separately. The TPB's guidance tells practitioners to seek their own advice on whether the Privacy Act 1988 applies to them.

A pre-publish checklist for tax practitioner marketing

1. Is every service in the ad one your registration covers, and does the copy state your registration type and number correctly?
2. If you use the symbol, does it carry your number and type, at the right size, on a clean background?
3. Can you back every claim about results, speed, price or experience with records you could show the TPB or the ACCC?
4. Does anything compare you with named or implied competitors without evidence?
5. Does every testimonial, client logo and case study have the client's written permission?
6. Are your reviews genuine, with any incentive offered regardless of rating and disclosed?
7. Does your website carry the section 45 information about the TPB register, complaints and your obligations, plus any prescribed events or conditions?
8. If you use 'Chartered Accountants', 'CPA' or a professional body logo, does the practice structure meet that body's rules?
9. Have clients given permission before their details go into ad platforms or marketing tools connected to your CRM?
10. Has a registered agent or principal signed off the copy, with a dated record of what ran?

Where to go from here

These rules shape what good marketing for a practice looks like: specific about services and software, honest about registration and careful with client information. Our accountant marketing page explains how we run search, AEO and Google Ads for firms inside those limits, and our bookkeeper marketing page covers BAS agents. If the site itself needs rebuilding, see our page on accountant websites. For a second pair of eyes on your current ads and pages, book a free 30-minute profit audit.

This guide is general information drawn from the TPB, APESB, CA ANZ, CPA Australia and ACCC sources linked above, checked on 1 October 2026. It is not legal advice. Confirm anything you plan to publish with the TPB or your professional body.