ATO Interpretative Decision
ATO ID 2003/1003 (Withdrawn)
Excise
Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme: fishing operations - coralFOI status: may be released
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This ATOID is withdrawn as it is superseded by Fuel Tax Ruling FTR 2006/4.This document incorporates revisions made since original publication. View its history and amending notices, if applicable.
This ATOID provides you with the following level of protection:
If you reasonably apply this decision in good faith to your own circumstances (which are not materially different from those described in the decision), and the decision is later found to be incorrect you will not be liable to pay any penalty or interest. However, you will be required to pay any underpaid tax (or repay any over-claimed credit, grant or benefit), provided the time limits under the law allow it. If you do intend to apply this decision to your own circumstances, you will need to ensure that the relevant provisions referred to in the decision have not been amended or repealed. You may wish to obtain further advice from the Tax Office or from a professional adviser.
Issue
Is coral considered to be 'fish' as defined in subsection 34(2) of the Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme Act 2003 (EGCSA) for the purposes of the energy grants credits scheme?
Decision
Yes. Coral is considered to be 'fish' as defined in subsection 34(2) of the EGCSA for the purposes of the energy grants credit scheme.
Facts
A client carries on a business of collecting coral for sale.
Corals have nerve cells, sensorial cells, muscular cells, reproductive cells and nemotocysts.
They can reproduce asexually through processes of division, budding or fragmentation. They can also reproduce sexually by making free-swimming larvae that land away from the parent to form new coral.
Furthermore, corals, like many other animals, compete for food and space in order to live.
Reasons for Decision
Off-road credits are available under the EGCSA to persons who undertake primary production activities. The term primary production is defined in section 21 of the EGCSA as meaning amongst other things, 'fishing operations'. The term 'fishing operations' is in turn defined in section 34 of the EGCSA as meaning 'the taking, catching or capturing of fish' (and various other activities).
'Fish' is defined in subsection 34(2) of the EGCSA as:
... freshwater or salt-water fish, and includes crustacea, molluscs or any other living resources, whether of the sea or sea-bed or of freshwater or the bed below freshwater.
As corals are living animals that reproduce and compete with other animals and plants for space and resources in order to survive, it is considered that coral is a 'living resource of the sea' and therefore is considered to be 'fish' for the purposes of subsection 34(2) of the EGCSA.
Date of decision: 2 October 2003
Legislative References:
Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme Act 2003
subsection 34(2)
section 21
ATO ID 2003/1002
ATO ID 2003/1004
Keywords
EGCS fishing operations
EGCS taking, catching or capturing of fish
EGCS off-road
Energy grants (credits) scheme
Excise
Excise payments
ISSN: 1445-2782
| Date: | Version: | |
| 2 October 2003 | Original statement | |
| You are here | 12 March 2010 | Archived |