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ATO Interpretative Decision

ATO ID 2006/48 (Withdrawn)

Excise

Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme: off-road - forestry - seedling survival surveys
FOI status: may be released
  • This ATO ID is withdrawn from 1 July 2012, the date the Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme Act 2003 was repealed.
    Despite its withdrawal, this ATO ID continues to be a precedential ATO view in respect of the period the Act was in force, 1 July 2003 up to and including 30 June 2012.
    This document incorporates revisions made since original publication. View its history and amending notices, if applicable.

Status of this decision: Decision Withdrawn 1 July 2012
CAUTION: This is an edited and summarised record of a Tax Office decision. This record is not published as a form of advice. It is being made available for your inspection to meet FOI requirements, because it may be used by an officer in making another decision.

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you will need to ensure that the relevant provisions referred to in the decision have not been amended or repealed.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 the off-road use of a road vehicle in travelling between sites within a forest or plantation, in order to gather seedling survival statistics, 'forestry' for the purposes of section 35 of the Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme Act 2003 (EGCSA)?

Decision

Yes. The off-road use of a road vehicle in travelling between sites within a forest or plantation, in order to gather seedling survival statistics, is 'forestry' for the purposes of section 35 of the EGCSA.

Facts

An entity is engaged in carrying on a commercial forestry enterprise.

In the course of carrying on the forestry enterprise, the entity establishes and plants several coupes with seedlings which will eventually be felled.

A road vehicle is used by the entity's staff for transport between the new coupes sites for the purpose of carrying out survival surveys of the seedlings in the coupes.

The roads between the coupes are not public roads.

The assessment of the rate of survival is used to decide whether the coupe should be replanted.

The resulting statistics are also used in making decisions relating to the overall management of tree planting and they also are incorporated into the forest management plan to provide a basis for improvements to ongoing forest management.

Reasons for Decision

'Forestry' is relevantly defined in section 35 of the EGCSA as follows:

The expression forestry means:

(a)
the planting or tending, in a forest or plantation, of trees intended for felling; or
(b)
the thinning or felling, in a forest or plantation, of standing timber;
...

The surveying of forest coupes to assess survival rates of seedlings is an element in the overall management of the 'planting and tending' of trees in the forest or plantation.

The success of the planting activity and the need for any follow-up replanting can only be determined by means of such a survey. The survey activity therefore falls within paragraph (a) of the definition of 'forestry' in section 35 of the EGCSA, which states that 'planting and tending' of trees is an eligible activity.

The off-road use of a road vehicle in transporting staff between sites in the forest or plantation in order to carry out a seedling survival survey is part of this planting activity and is therefore 'forestry' for the purposes of section 35 of the EGCSA.

Date of decision:  1 October 2005

Legislative References:
Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme Act 2003
   paragraph 35(a)
   paragraph 35(b)

Related Public Rulings (including Determinations)
Product Grants and Benefits Ruling PGBR 2005/1

Related ATO Interpretative Decisions
ATO ID 2004/424
ATO ID 2006/47
ATO ID 2006/49

Keywords
EGCS forestry
EGCS off-road
EGCS plantation
EGCS planting or tending
Energy grants (credits) scheme

Business Line:  Indirect Tax

Date of publication:  24 February 2006

ISSN: 1445-2782

history
  Date: Version:
  1 October 2005 Original statement
You are here → 1 July 2012 Archived

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