Not All Tree-Farms Are Bad Eggs

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

14 August 2001

After Australian Tax Commissioner, Mr Michael Carmody, backed the troubled tax-effective tree farm industry yesterday, a spokesman thanked him for reassuring investors that the sector was distinct from the mass marketed tax abusive schemes he had been pursuing.

Mr Carmody confirmed that investors in tax-effective tree farm projects would be entitled to tax benefits where the managed investment had a product ruling, and was followed, he said in a statement. "A product ruling says investors can have confidence in the tax outcome provided, if of course the arrangement is implemented in the way explained to the Tax Office," he said.

The need for his reassurance had become urgent after the collapse of Australian Plantation Timber due to a crisis of investor confidence in the tax-effective agribusiness sector caused partly by threatening statements from the Australian Tax Office about its determination to stamp out abusive tax shelters.

"It had become absolutely vital for the Commissioner to publish an official statement," Australian Forest Growers executive director Mr Alan Cummine said. Months of negative and "incomplete" media reports had "created widespread confusion and uncertainty in the investment and finance communities about contemporary tax-effective investments," he said.

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