Finance recently gave a favourable response to the joint committee's concerns about the proposed gross negligence standard.
Finance considers gross negligence to differ greatly from ordinary negligence.
Finance will recommend a good-faith reliance rule to confirm that a tax professional who prepares or files a tax return on behalf of a taxpayer is not considered to have engaged in culpable conduct by reason only of having relied, in good faith, on information provided by the taxpayer. In the next few weeks Finance is expected to release these rules as part of a draft legislation package relating to the 1999 budget.