Explanatory Memorandum
(Circulated by authority of the Treasurer, the Hon Peter Costello MP)Chapter 3 Future repeal of inoperative provisions
Outline of chapter
3.1 Schedule 3 to this Bill repeals the provisions in the income tax laws that have been identified as becoming inoperative in the immediate future. Schedule 4 makes consequential amendments to various pieces of Commonwealth legislation that will be required when those inoperative provisions are repealed.
Context of amendments
3.2 It became obvious in examining the income tax law for inoperative provisions that some provisions were not yet inoperative but would become so in the immediate future.
3.3 The more inoperative material that is repealed, the greater the benefits of the measure because users of the law can have greater faith that the provisions they read are still operative. Opportunities to clean up the law by removing inoperative provisions only come along infrequently, so it is worth taking this one to deal with material that can be identified as about to become inoperative.
Detailed explanation of new law
3.4 The provisions listed in Schedule 3 to this Bill are repealed on 1 January 2008. [ Schedule 3, items 1 to 21 ]
Timing
3.5 These provisions become inoperative at different times. Some become inoperative because they say that they only apply before a stated future date. Some become inoperative because the transactions they cover will have expired within the next year or so.
3.6 One possibility, therefore, would have been to enact legislation to repeal each of the provisions as it reached its own inoperative date. This Bill opts instead to repeal all of these future inoperative provisions at a single future date: 1 January 2008.
3.7 Having just one date for repealing all of the provisions identified as becoming inoperative in the immediate future makes it easier for users and publishers of the income tax law to keep track of when the provisions are repealed.
3.8 1 January 2008 was chosen as that single date because it is the first day after the 2006-07 income year ends for taxpayers with late balancing accounting periods. The last of the future inoperative provisions becomes inoperative during that income year.
Savings, application and transitional provisions
3.9 The commencement date for the repeal and amendment of provisions under Schedules 3 and 4 to this Bill is 1 January 2008 [ subclause 2(1 ), item 3 in the table ]. For assessment cases, where it is possible that the timing of the repeal could matter, both the repeal and any consequential amendments apply from the start of the 2007-08 income year [ Schedule 6, paragraph ( a ), item 4 ].
3.10 For other cases, the repeal and consequential amendments apply to any states of affairs and acts done after commencement on 1 January 2008. [ Schedule 6, paragraph ( b ), item 4 ]
3.11 The savings provisions applying to the repeal of the inoperative Acts and the related consequential amendments are described in paragraphs 2.39 to 2.56.
Consequential amendments
3.12 Various amendments are made to a number of Commonwealth statutes to remove references to the inoperative provisions repealed by Schedule 3. [ Schedule 4, items 1 to 12 ]