Legislation/regulation round-up
The following Bills have passed the Senate without amendment and are now awaiting Royal Assent:
- Tax Law Improvement Bill (No 1) 1998 (formerly Tax Law Improvement Bill (No 2) 1997) which contains the rewrite of the CGT provisions, effective from the 1998/99 income year.
- Taxation Laws (Technical Amendments) Bill 1997 which contains a variety of miscellaneous amendments.
- The Taxation Laws Amendment (Company Law Review) Bill 1998 and Income Tax (Untainting Tax) Bill 1998 have passed the House of Representatives and are now due for debate in the Senate. The Senate is not sitting again until the week commencing 22 June 1998.
New Bills introduced into Parliament:
- Taxation Laws Amendment (Landcare and Water Facility Tax Offset) Bill 1998 which provides for a rebate (tax offset) as an alternative to deductions for expenditure incurred by primary producers and certain rural landholders on landcare works and water conserving and conveying facilities.
- Taxation Laws Amendment (Farm Management Deposits) Bill 1998 which includes measures containing a farm management deposit scheme to replace the present system of income equalisation deposits and farm management bonds.
- Taxation Laws Amendment (Political Donations) Bill 1998 which will enable taxpayers to make tax deductible contributions (including membership subscriptions) of $2 or more to political parties to a maximum of $1,500.
Other key Parliamentary business:
- The Senate passed an amendment to the TLAB (No 3) 1998 to make it clear that there is a clear statutory obligation for a "large remitter" to pay RPS, PAYE and PPS deductions to the Commissioner by electronic means.
- The legislation on member choice of superannuation fund now contains the deferral of the start date for member choice of fund for new employees from 1 July 1998 to 1 July 1999.
- The Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations were amended to overcome temporary situations, arising from the demutualisation of life insurance companies, which would otherwise require certain superannuation funds to comply with unintended onerous requirements relating to member reporting and preparation of financial statements.
ATO rulings/determinations/addendums
The following issued during last week:
- Taxation Determination TD98-11 which sets out the Commissioner's views on when shares are acquired and when instalments are paid, for capital gains tax purposes, under the recent Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Telstra public share offers.
- Taxation Ruling TR98-6 which is an occupational ruling for salespeople and property managers employed in the real estate industry and deals with the assessability of allowances and reimbursements and the deductibility of expenses generally claimed by real estate employees.
- An addendum to Taxation Ruling TR97-25 which deals with deductions for capital expenditure on construction of income-producing capital works. The addendum adds "a quantity surveyor, who has expertise in the relevant type of construction" to the list of appropriately qualified people in para 28 of the ruling.
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