Retail Industry Partnership

If you are involved in retail activity you may have some queries about the New Tax System.

You should not assume that your products will be GST-free just because they were previously Sales Tax exempt. There are important differences between the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) legislation and the old Sales Tax legislation.

If you are a supplier of food products and your product is not listed in the GST food guide you should contact the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to confirm the GST status of your product. You can do this by:

• writing to us at
  Australian Taxation Office
  PO Box 3524
  ALBURY  NSW  2640
• phoning the business Tax Reform infoline on 13 28 66.

Once a private ruling issues to you, you can rely on it unless you have misstated or suppressed a material fact.

If you find that a competitor is not charging GST on a product that is taxable, you may wish to contact the ATO on 1800 060 062.

Role of the Industry Partnership

The role of the Retail Industry Partnership is to raise and clarify issues from the new tax system that are of relevance to retail industry.

Through the Industry Partnership, the ATO is working in partnership with the retail industry to help create an informed and confident industry that is able to comply with the tax laws.

The key elements and objectives of the industry partnership are:

• To ensure the retail industry is informed of GST and tax reform measures including Australian business number (ABN), Pay as You Go (PAYG) and Business Activity Statements (BAS)
• To assist industry representatives to identify issues from an industry perspective
• To work with industry representatives to resolve these issues
• To use industry representatives to deliver products to meet identified needs
• To establish a successful partnership that will result in maximising our efforts by assisting a greater number of businesses in a focussed and co-ordinated way.

Parameters of the industry to be covered by this forum

The parameters of retail industry that will be covered by this forum are:

• importers
• wholesalers
• retailers.

Please note that where aspects of retailing covered by existing partnerships, for example food, motor vehicles or financing, arise in this forum, the ATO will escalate the item to the relevant industry team.