The Federal Treasurer of Australia, Peter Costello, has released draft legislation containing proposals to repeal more than 4,100 pages, or almost one-third, of redundant and inoperative provisions from Australia's tax legislation.
The release of the exposure draft follows a report by the Board of Taxation which identified inoperative provisions in the 1936 and 1997 Income Tax Assessment Acts.
In announcing the release of the draft legislation, the Treasurer said the exposure draft is a major step to reducing the complexity of tax laws, as it proposes the reduction of income tax legislation by more than 31 percent.
In addition to the 2,100 pages of income tax law originally identified as inoperative by the Board, the Government has identified 500 more pages of inoperative provisions in the income tax law and 1,500 pages of inoperative tax Acts (eg, Sales Tax Acts).
Inoperative provisions and Acts are those that no longer apply to taxpayers, either because they have no effect after a date in the past or because all the transactions or events they did affect have now concluded.
The government plans to release an exposure draft to provide a final public verification process, in order to ensure that the provisions identified are truly inoperative. Interested parties are invited to submit comments on the exposure draft by 5 May 2006.
Costello explained that the Government has also taken the opportunity to make a number of minor improvements to the usability and readability of tax law.
"For example, it makes a number of amendments to ensure that certain expressions are defined in only one way across the tax laws," he stated.
"The Government will continue to take such opportunities to improve the usability and readability of the tax laws in the future," Costello added.
The Treasury is also due to prepare amendments to repeal identified inoperative regulations, and Costello has also asked the Commissioner of Taxation to consider the impact of the proposed changes on rulings and other materials.
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