Barkoczy, Stephen --- "Editorial" [2000] JlATax 11; (2000) 3(3) Journal of Australian Taxation 166

Editorial

Associate Professor Stephen Barkoczy

This issue of the Journal marks the end of the "Old Tax System" and the commencement of the much publicised "New Tax System". During the lead up to 1 July 2000, the Government and the ATO have been urging businesses to actively prepare for the introduction of the New Tax System - particularly the introduction of the GST and the PAYG regimes. Never before has there been such media hype about tax changes nor has there ever been such a concerted marketing campaign by a Government seeking to implement fundamental tax reform. In recent months, it has been difficult to find a newspaper which is not peppered with GST advertisements or to turn on the television without seeing a set of chains breaking away.

There have been many diligent businesses that commenced their GST preparations well in advance by seeking advice, only to find that at the same time the Government was in the process of amending the legislation upon which that advice was based. For instance, the GST legislation has been amended by several Acts, including the A New Tax System (Pay As You Go) Act 1999, the A New Tax System (Indirect Tax and Consequential Amendments) Act 1999, the A New Tax System (Indirect Tax and Consequential Amendments) Act (No 2) 1999, and the A New Tax System (Fringe Benefits) Act 2000.The most recent barrage of amendments are found in the Indirect Tax Legislation Amendment Act 2000 which only received assent on 30 June. Coupled with these legislative changes is a swag of GST rulings and draft rulings issued by the ATO. Many of these rulings and draft rulings were hastily released in the weeks preceding 30 June and practitioners have therefore had little time to absorb them.

At grass roots level, it is expected that Australian taxpayers will learn to get used to the basic mechanics of GST relatively quickly. One expects that most businesses that need ABNs have already applied for them and that they are now in a position to issue proper tax invoices. The fundamentals of BAS reporting and GST record keeping should become second nature to taxpayers in the months to come. Nevertheless, the propaganda about GST being a "simple" tax will ultimately prove to be a fallacy. On a technical level, GST is expected to raise many difficult issues for advisers. Fundamental issues such as the meaning of "supply" and "enterprise" will no doubt entertain the courts in years to come. One only has to examine how the tax interrelates with other taxes such as FBT to realise the complications caused by GST. Anyone who has had a chance to examine the way in which the new FBT gross up operates to take into account GST must be wondering whether we are really moving towards tax simplification or tax complication.

This issue of the Journal also marks another milestone being the end of the second full year of the Journal's publication. Since its first publication in mid-1998, there have been over fifty articles published in the Journal. These articles have dealt with a broad range of topics. As the index at the back of this issue demonstrates, we have published articles on GST and other tax reform issues, tax avoidance, entity taxation, tax administration and constitutional issues as well as fundamental income and deduction issues. This issue of the Journal continues this tradition with a spread of articles dealing with diverse issues ranging from GST and financial supplies to tax avoidance. The introduction of the New Tax System means that there is certainly no shortage of topical issues upon which to comment and we look forward to receiving future articles from practitioners and academics.

June 2000