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State Taxation Acts Amendment Bill
2007
Introduction Print
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
General
The Bill amends the Duties Act 2000 to provide--
· clarification of the land rich duty provisions; and
· clarity and consistency in the administration of the
demonstrator vehicle exemption and to change a heading to
one Part of the motor vehicle duty provisions to better reflect
its content.
The Taxation Administration Act 1997 is amended to clarify the intent
behind the penalty tax provisions in respect of "voluntary" disclosures by
taxpayers who save the Commissioner the time and effort of a full, formal
investigation.
Clause Notes
PART 1--PRELIMINARY
Part 1 of the Bill outlines the purposes of the Bill and contains the
commencement provisions.
Clause 1 outlines the purposes of the Bill.
Clause 2 provides that the proposed Act comes into operation on the day
after the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.
PART 2--DUTIES ACT 2000
Part 2 of the Bill makes amendments to the Duties Act 2000.
Clause 3 provides for the repeal of the definition of entitled in section 3(1)
as the definition is superfluous and could lead to confusion when
interpreting the land rich duty provisions.
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Clause 4 replaces the term "a beneficial entitlement" with "an entitlement"
for the purposes of the land rich duty provisions.
Clause 5 Section 77 of the Duties Act sets out how an interest in a land
rich landholder may be acquired. Clause 5 clarifies that where an
interest in a land rich landholder is acquired by a trustee, the
trustee (in addition to the beneficiaries) will be taken to have
obtained an interest "beneficially". A trustee who holds or
acquires an interest in a land rich landholder is to be treated as a
separate person in respect of each trust of which the trustee is a
trustee and the personal capacity of the trustee, if any.
Clause 6 Subclause (1) inserts a new section 83(1A) in the Duties Act
2000 which clarifies that if a relevant acquisition results from the
aggregation of the interest acquired by a person, associated
person or any person in an associated transaction, the reference to
"interest acquired" in the charging provision is a reference to any
interest acquired by those persons on the same day.
Subclause (1) also inserts a new section 83(1B) which clarifies
that the charging provision applies to all relevant acquisitions,
including those made within 3 years preceding the relevant
acquisition.
Subclause (2) confirms that associated transaction has the same
meaning in section 83 as it has in section 79.
Clause 7 replaces the phrase "the use of the motor vehicle for the purpose
of the sale of another motor vehicle of the same class" with "the
use of the motor vehicle as a demonstrator vehicle". This is to
remove any confusion there may have been around the exemption
provided for demonstrator vehicles.
Clause 8 replaces the heading to Part 4 of Chapter 9 to "Part 4--Duty on
Change of Use" to more accurately reflect the content of that
Part.
PART 3--TAXATION ADMINISTRATION ACT 1997
Part 3 of the Bill makes an amendment to the Taxation Administration Act
1997.
Clause 9 Subclause (1) clarifies the original intention of the automatic
penalty tax reduction, namely, to reward disclosures of
information by a taxpayer that are truly voluntary.
Subclause (2) operates to deny the automatic reduction in penalty
tax to those taxpayers who are required to pay tax by return and
fail to lodge returns or who lodge returns without paying the
associated tax.
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PART 4--REPEAL OF AMENDING ACT
Clause 10 provides for the automatic repeal of this amending Act on the
anniversary of its commencement. As suggested by the Scrutiny
of Acts and Regulations Committee, all amending Acts now
contain an automatic repeal provision, which will save the time
and expense of having to repeal amending Acts in statute law
revision Bills. The repeal of this Act does not affect in any way
the operation of the amendments made by this Act (see section
15(1) of the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984).
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