Changes to the Income Tax (Determinations) Regulations 1987

(Clauses 176 to 178)

Summary of proposed amendments

Regulation 10 of the Income Tax (Determinations) Regulations 1987 is being amended to change the reference to “the Gazette” to “a publication chosen by the Commissioner” following a similar change in respect of binding rulings made in 2010. The current fee-waiver provision will also be amended to make it more flexible.

Application date

The amendment will apply from the date of enactment.

Key features

The current fee-waiver provision only permits the fees for a financial arrangement determination to be waived in whole or in part in “exceptional circumstances”. The new fee-waiver provision will allow greater flexibility based on what the Commissioner considers is fair and reasonable.

Background

The proposed removal of the reference to “the Gazette” follows changes which were made to the Tax Administration Act in 2010, where the requirement to publish the making and withdrawal of public and product rulings in the Gazette was replaced with a requirement to publish in a publication chosen by the Commissioner. As with the previous change, this is aimed at streamlining the process and avoiding the duplicate publishing of the determinations (which are published in Tax Information Bulletins and available on Inland Revenue’s website).

The fee-waiver provision in the Tax Administration (Binding Rulings) Regulations 1999 was similarly amended in 2010 to provide the Commissioner with greater flexibility to waive fees in circumstances where it is considered to be fair and reasonable to do so.