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Senate

Income Tax Assessment Amendment Bill (No. 3) 1982

Income Tax Assessment Amendment Act (No. 3) 1982

Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum

(circulated by authority of the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator the Hon. Dame Margaret Guilfoyle, D.B.E.)

Introductory Note

This supplementary memorandum explains changes that were made to the Bill as introduced into the House of Representatives and which relate to the secrecy provisions contained in section 16 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.

By the Income Tax Assessment Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1982 amendments are proposed to section 16 so as to permit the disclosure of confidential taxation information to certain Royal Commissions, for use for the purposes of their enquiries. Under that Bill a Royal Commission would also be permitted to divulge confidential information that it had received from the Commissioner of Taxation to the Attorney-General if it appears from that information that a law of the Commonwealth may have been breached. Taxation information received by the Attorney-General in these circumstances could then be passed on to the Australian Federal Police where the Attorney-General considers it appropriate to do so.

The further amendments now proposed to be made to the secrecy provisions of the Income Tax Assessment Act are contained in clause 3 of the Income Tax Assessment Amendment Bill (No. 3) 1982. The purpose of the further amendments is to impose stricter limitations on the circumstances in which a Royal Commission will be permitted to divulge confidential taxation information to the Attorney-General. Specifically, a Royal Commission will not be permitted to divulge taxation information to the Attorney-General unless it is of the opinion that the information indicates that a person may have committed an offence against a Commonwealth Act which carries a penalty of 6 months or more imprisonment. More detailed explanations follow.

Notes on Clauses

Clause 2: Commencement

By sub-clause (1) of this clause, the amending Act, other than clause 3, is to come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent. But for this clause the amending Act would, by reason of sub-section 5(1A) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, come into operation on the twenty-eighth day after the date of Assent.

Sub-clause (2) specifies that clause 3 of the amending Act, which is related to the amendments proposed in the Income Tax Assessment Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1982, will come into operation immediately after the Royal Assent is given to that Bill. This will ensure that the related amendments to the secrecy provisions of the income tax law proposed in this Bill and in the (No. 2) Bill will operate from the same time.

Clause 3: Officers to observe secrecy

This clause, which will amend paragraph 16(4A)(b) of the Income Tax Assessment Act (as proposed to be inserted by the Income Tax Assessment Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1982), will confine the authority that is to be given to specified Royal Commissions to divulge taxation information to the Attorney-General to those cases where, in the opinion of the Royal Commission, the information indicates that an offence may have been committed against a Commonwealth Act, where such an offence carries a penalty of 6 months or more imprisonment, whether in substitution for or in addition to any monetary penalty that may attach to such an offence.

Clause 4: Exemptions

This clause is in identical terms, apart from having been renumbered, to clause 3 of the Bill as introduced into the House of Representatives which is explained in the memorandum issued previously.


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