Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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TAXATION ADMINISTRATION AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2011 (NO. 1) (SLI NO 6 OF 2011)

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Select Legislative Instrument 2011 No. 6

Issued by authority of the Assistant Treasurer

Taxation Administration Act 1953

Taxation Administration Amendment Regulations 2011 (No. 1)

Section 18 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

These Regulations amend the Taxation Administration Regulations 1976 (the Principal Regulations) to prescribe the individual in a government entity who can swear/affirm an affidavit or make a statutory declaration, for the purposes of section 268-90 in Schedule 1 to the Act.

Both amendments replicate the effect of regulation 147G of the Income Tax Regulations 1936 (the 1936 Regulations).  The regulations relate to estimates rules.  Estimates rules enable the Commissioner of Taxation (the Commissioner) to make an estimate of amounts not paid by taxpayers, as required by the Pay As You Go (PAYG) withholding rules, and to recover the amount of the estimates. 

Section 268-40 of the Act provides methods by which an estimate of a taxpayer's underlying PAYG liability made by the Commissioner under section 268-10 may be reduced or revoked. Where the Commissioner has given a taxpayer a notice of estimate of that liability under section 268-15, the taxpayer may give the Commissioner a statutory declaration or affidavit within seven days from when the Commissioner gives the notice or such longer time as the Commissioner allows outlining the true amount of the liability.

Different rules and processes apply depending on the type of entity swearing/affirming the affidavit or making the statutory declaration. In relation to most entities (companies, individuals and superannuation funds for example), the required details are set out in the section.  However, in relation to government entities (bodies politic and Australian government agencies), the section provides that the individual who may make a statutory declaration or swear/affirm an affidavit is to be prescribed by regulation.  The regulation specifies a 'public official of an Australian government agency who is responsible for the financial affairs of the agency' as the prescribed individual in relation to a particular government body.

The Regulations form part of the re-write process for Divisions 8 and 10 of Part IV of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (relating to estimates rules). Divisions 8 and 10 have now been rewritten into Division 268 in Schedule 1 to the Act.  The Regulations replicate the effect of regulation 147G in the 1936 Regulations, which has been repealed by another minute.

These Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (LIA 2003).

Consultation was not undertaken in relation to this instrument because it was minor or machinery in nature and did not substantially change the law.  Secondly, the regulations do not affect the public at large as they only apply to government entities.

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