Tax Simplification – An Accident Looking for a Place to Happen?

17 Pages Posted: 25 Dec 2015

Date Written: December 23, 2015

Abstract

The stalled Tax Laws Improvement Project to simplify Australia’s tax laws is/was founded on the premise that the words of an Act can be changed without impacting on its meaning.

Whilst there is a (weak) common law presumption that a change in the wording of a provision is to be presumed to effect a change in meaning, section 1-3 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 purports to over-ride this presumption.

Precedent for such a provision exists in the Acts Interpretation Acts of the Commonwealth and some States. Most significantly the New Zealand tax law rewrite has adopted a similar provision although it has been given less primacy.

It is argued and illustrated that section 1-3 is flawed in both principle and application, a proposition that is supported by developments in New Zealand.

If this conclusion is correct then the implication is that not only might the simplification project not achieve its goals it may, in fact, render the tax laws more unclear given the prospect of inadvertent legislative change being identified by the judiciary.

Suggested Citation

Dabner, Justin, Tax Simplification – An Accident Looking for a Place to Happen? (December 23, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2707910 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2707910

Justin Dabner (Contact Author)

Tax Re-Solutions ( email )

Cairns, Qld
Australia
0412283702 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://lkmandjhd.com.au/tax-re-solutions/

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