ATO staff style guide for private rulings

About the Style guide

This style guide is a copy of the standards that our officers apply when writing documents such as private rulings. When we say 'you' we are referring to ATO staff.

How ATO staff refer to legislation

• General approach
• Referring to an Act in an abbreviated form
• Regulations
• Bills (legislation not yet passed)
• Explanatory Memoranda
• Repealed Acts
• International tax agreements
• Legislative determinations

General approach

When legislation is cited in text, apply the most specific appropriate reference of the piece of legislation that is used. You need to cite the short title of the Act, not the long title.

Where necessary for distinguishing purposes, different elements of the legislation (in ascending order) will need to be included in the citation. For example:

• section 136AD of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936
• Division 13 of Part III of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936
• section 358-5 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953
• Part 5-5 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953.

It's permissible to refer to an Act at the start of a report (or section of a report, such as the Explanation or Reasons for decision) stating that all references are to that Act. For example, 'All references are to the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997)'.

If more than one Act is being referenced, it's acceptable to write 'All references are to the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) unless otherwise stated'.

To avoid confusion, when referring to specific parts of an Act (such as a section or subsection) abbreviations, such as 's' or 'ss', should not be used.

Referring to an Act in an abbreviated form

When you wish to refer to an Act in an abbreviated manner the abbreviation should be referred to the first time you cite the Act. The abbreviation should then be used thereafter, for example Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 1936).

Care should be taken to cite the full title of the relevant Act followed by a meaningful abbreviation, and not to invent legislation, for example, ‘the Tax Act’. Spelling and capitalisation must be exactly as the name of the Act. To achieve consistency, the following abbreviations for legislation should be used:

• GST Act – A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999
• ADJR – Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977
• FBTAA – Fringe Benefits Tax Assessment Act 1986
• ITAA 1936 – Income Tax Assessment Act 1936
• ITAA 1997 – Income Tax Assessment Act 1997
• ITR 1986 – Income Tax Rates Act 1986
• Agreements Act – International Tax Agreements Act 1953
• PRRTAA – Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act 1987
• SGAA – Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992
• SISA – Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993
• TAA – Taxation Administration Act 1953.

When abbreviating Acts which have the same or similar abbreviations to popular Acts – for example, ITAA can be Income Tax Assessment Act or International Tax Agreements Act – you must use abbreviations that don't mislead the reader.

Regulations

Citing of regulations follows the same principles as legislation. The titles of regulations are also presented in italics.

Note that regulations made after 1 January 2012 are given in the singular, that is 'regulation', rather than the plural 'regulations'. For these, references are also to be given in the singular, for example 'this regulation', not 'these regulations'.

Pinpoint references in regulations are to:

• regulation
• subregulation
• paragraph
• subparagraph
• sub-subparagraph.

Note: For regulations made after 1 January 2012, pinpoint references (except for those in Schedules – see below) are to:

• section
• subsection
• paragraph
• subparagraph
• sub-subparagraph.

Bills (legislation not yet passed)

The title of the bill is not italicised, for example Taxation Laws Amendment (A Simpler Business Activity Statement) Bill 2002.

Explanatory Memoranda

When quoting an Explanatory Memorandum, it is always to the Bill, even when the Bill has subsequently become an Act of Parliament, for example Explanatory Memorandum to the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (No.4) of 1996.

Repealed Acts

It's necessary to indicate that the Act is now repealed or superseded. For superseded sections of Acts, you should indicate that the Act you are citing was current as at a particular date. For example:

• Local Government (Financial Assistance) Act 1986 (repealed)
• Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 as at 1 April 1975
• former subparagraph 170(2)(b)(i) of the ITAA 1936 (repealed as of 1 July 2000).

International tax agreements

Previously, the full text of international agreements to which Australia was a party were replicated as separate schedules to the International Tax Agreements Act 1953 (Agreements Act). Following the enactment of the International Tax Agreements Amendment Act (No. 1) 2011 with effect from 27 June 2011 all but one of the various schedules to the Agreements Act have been repealed. The new approach in the Agreements Act is to refer to the Australian Treaties Series (set out on the Australasian Legal Information Institute site AustliiExternal Link), which contains the full text of the agreement.

Given the length of some of the titles of the agreements, if you wish to refer to the agreement in an abbreviated manner elsewhere in the document, the abbreviation should be referred to the first time you cite the agreement, and the abbreviation should be used thereafter.

Alternatively, consideration could also be given to the use of footnotes to make the citation – subject to the certain provisos provided in the section on footnotes later in this document. If this option was chosen, the abbreviation could be used in the main text, with a footnote to the full citation as outlined below.

The first time you cite an international agreement, it must be cited in full, as follows (in order of citation):

• full title of the agreement, in italics
• medium neutral citation.

Legislative determinations

Final legislative determinations don't have a reference number – they only have the title of the determination. The title should be cited in full and in italics.

How ATO officers refer to cases

• General approach
• Examples
• Abbreviating the case name

General approach

While reported cases have multiple citations, most taxation related cases should be cited only per the medium neutral report.

1. Case name - The case name should be exactly per the wording of the medium neutral report (that is, as reported on the website for that Court), and in italics. Note that the case name, per the medium neutral report, will generally not have a full stop after the 'v'.
2. Medium neutral citation - Medium neutral citations have square brackets, and no punctuation. Other case citations (including to commercial reports of that case) are not required. The medium neutral citation should also be obtained from the appropriate website for the relevant Court. In some instances, transcription errors have occurred in other reports or other ATO documents, and Austlii for instance has incorrectly assigned medium neutral citations for some Federal Court decisions.
3. The name of the case is in italics; no comma should follow the name (the name of the case should be cited in the manner in which the first reporter cites the name). The citation is not in italics.

In situations where no medium neutral citation can be found other citations can be used.

Examples

• Federal Commissioner of Taxation v Thomas [2018] HCA 31
• Fyna Projects Pty Ltd v Deputy Commissioner of Taxation [2018] FCA 2041
• Commissioner of Taxation v Cassaniti [2018] FCAFC 212
• NT86/6585 and Commissioner of Taxation [1987] AATA 85
• Eldersmede Pty Ltd and Ors and Commissioner of Taxation [2004] AATA 710 .

Abbreviating the case name

Where a case is referred to a number of times in a text, it may be shortened in second and subsequent references. You should decide how you are going to refer to the case subsequently at the time you first cite the case and include the abbreviation at the end of the first reference to the case, in italics and within brackets.

Once you have selected a format, it's important to use it consistently throughout the rest of the document.

How ATO officers refer to documents we produce

• Rulings and determinations
• Practical compliance guidelines
• ATO Interpretative Decisions
• Decision impact statements
• Law administration practice statements

Rulings and determinations

For rulings and determinations, the naming convention for the year of issue changed in 1999. Rulings and determinations issued prior to 1999 have a 2-digit year indicator, whereas rulings and determinations issued in or after 1999 have a 4-digit year. CGT determinations (1-60) don't have a year displayed.

Draft public rulings

Draft public rulings are cited in the same manner as rulings and determinations. For example, 'Draft Taxation Ruling TR 2007/D10 Income tax: capital gains: capital gains tax consequences of earnout arrangements'.

Practical compliance guidelines

When citing a practical compliance guideline, follow the same principles as for rulings and determinations. The first time you cite a guideline in text it must be in full, using the long title. The title of the guideline is to be italicised. The title may be omitted for the second or subsequent citations. For example:

• (initial citation) Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2016/1 Practical Compliance Guidelines: purpose, nature and role in ATO's public advice and guidance
• (subsequent citation) PCG 2016/1.

ATO Interpretative Decisions

ATO Interpretative Decisions (ATO IDs) are also cited in the same manner as rulings and determinations, for example 'ATO Interpretative Decision ATO ID 2003/18 Group company loss transfers – loss company inactive during deduction year'.

ATO IDs may be cited either in the body of the report or in letters to taxpayers. You may base the wording of a private ruling on material contained in an ATO ID, provided it is appropriately personalised to the taxpayer’s circumstances. For example, 'In coming to our decision, we have taken into consideration ATO Interpretative Decision ATO ID 2006/21 Goods and services tax – GST and receipt of surety bond payment.'

Decision impact statements

The citation for a DIS is prefaced with the words 'Decision impact statement on' followed by the case citation. For example:

• Decision impact statement on Deputy Commissioner of Taxation v McGuire [2013] NSWSC 184
• Decision impact statement on Young and Anor and Commissioner of Taxation [2013] AATA 347

Law administration practice statements

When citing Law administration practice statements, follow the same principles. For example":

• (initial citation) Law Administration Practice Statement PS LA 2003/4 Written binding advice – requests for further information
• (subsequent citation) PS LA 2003/4

How ATO officers refer to electronic material

We often simply provide hyperlinks to relevant webpages within documents. However, if the website is a key reference which supports findings within the document it should also be cited (in a footnote or in the References section of that document). The citation in these instances should contain the:

4. name of the author (person or organisation responsible for the site)
5. site date (the date of the site's creation or most recent update)
6. URL (if the URL is not the homepage of that website, include the homepage, or include [website] in square brackets after the URL)
7. viewing date if you are referencing a particular piece of information on that site.

ATO officers' general style requirements

The general style requirements ATO officers apply when writing our advice is based largely on the Australian Government Style ManualExternal Link.