Under the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Reform of Commonwealth-State Financial Relations, the Commonwealth has referred to the Ministerial Council a number of minor proposals to improve the operation of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (GST Act) and related legislation. These proposals meet technical problems identified by the Australian Taxation Office by tax practitioners, industry representatives and some States and Territories.
The proposals contain no substantive policy issues but will increase administrative simplicity and compliance. Areas in which changes are proposed are the treatment of financial services, the role of representatives of incapacitated entities, re-importations and temporary importations. Other proposals seek to finetune the interaction of the fringe benefits tax and the GST.
After approval by the Ministerial Council the proposals will be introduced in the October sittings.