Tax Laws Amendment Bill Introduced Into Australian Parliament

The Tax Laws Amendment (2010 Measures no. 5) Bill 2010 has been introduced into the Australian parliament. It contains the measure relating to ‘running balance account – applying of credits’. The measure covers recommendation 39 from the Board of Taxation review of the goods and services tax (GST) administration.

This measure amends the Taxation Administration Act 1953 to ensure that it will not be mandatory to apply a payment, credit or running balance account surplus against a tax debt that is a business activity statement amount unless that amount is due and payable.

The Board of Taxation had made 46 recommendations and the Government agreed to implement 41 of them in May 2010. The key components of the package included harmonizing the GST law and the income tax self assessment regime and rulings regime; adopting more principled and flexible GST grouping rules; simplifying the GST adjustment provisions; and reforming the GST treatment of sales of going concerns and farmland.