Australia Simplifies Tax Law For Housing Scheme

Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

04 February 2011

Proposed changes to the Australian National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) tax law provisions will benefit participants in the scheme who provide low-cost rental accommodation.

The Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten has released for public comment the exposure draft legislation and explanatory material to amend provisions in the tax law that relate to the NRAS.

"The proposed legislation ensures that parties participating as part of a collective group can receive, tax free, the full amount of the NRAS incentive, as intended by the Government," Shorten said.

The proposed amendments will:

• Introduce the concept of an NRAS consortium, which will allow parties participating collectively in NRAS to access the NRAS tax offset, without having to meet the requirements of being a non-entity joint venture (a narrower concept than NRAS consortium);
• Recognise that certificates issued by the Housing Secretary under NRAS are issued to the approved participants;
• Ensure that the structure of an NRAS consortium does not prevent the ultimate investors in NRAS from receiving the NRAS tax offset;
• Ensure that certain payments and non-cash benefits provided under NRAS indirectly, such as through an NRAS consortium, are non-assessable, non-exempt income.

"The proposed amendments provide certainty to parties participating collectively in NRAS as to their entitlements under the Scheme," said Mr Shorten.

Recommended