ATO Interpretative Decision

ATO ID 2005/267 (Withdrawn)

Excise

Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme: on-road credits - vehicle for transporting passengers or goods - street sweeper
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This ATO ID is withdrawn from 1 July 2012, the date the Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme Act 2003 was repealed.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.

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you will need to ensure that the relevant provisions referred to in the decision have not been amended or repealed.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 a street sweeper, which gathers waste matter into its hopper for later disposal, a vehicle for transporting goods for the purposes of subsection 43(1) of the Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme Act 2003 (EGCSA)?

Decision

Yes. A street sweeper which gathers waste matter into its hopper for later disposal is a vehicle for transporting goods for the purposes of subsection 43(1) of the EGCSA.

Facts

An entity carries on an enterprise providing a road sweeping service. In carrying on this enterprise the entity operates a diesel powered street sweeper.

The street sweeper is designed specifically for cleaning streets using two functions.

The first function is to gather the waste matter into its hopper. It does this by way of hydraulically operated brushes that brush the waste matter into the path of the vacuum nozzle which then sucks the waste into the hopper. The hopper is that part of the vehicle that stores the waste allowing it to be transported to the dump site.

The second function is to transport the waste to a location where it can be dumped.

The street sweeper meets the following eligibility requirements of subsection 43(1) of the EGCSA:

•: it has a gross vehicle mass (GVM) of 4.5 tonnes or more, but less than 20 tonnes, and
•: it is registered for use on a public road.

Reasons for Decision

Subsection 43(1) of the EGCSA provides that a claimant is entitled to an on-road credit if they purchase, or import into Australia, on-road diesel fuel, or on-road alternative fuel, for:

...
(a): use in a registered vehicle that has a gross vehicle mass of 4.5 tonnes or more, but less than 20 tonnes, where the vehicle is a vehicle for transporting passengers or goods; or; ...

As the street sweeper otherwise meets the eligibility requirements of subsection 43(1) of the EGCSA, it will be an eligible vehicle if it falls within the description of 'a vehicle for transporting ... goods'.

The expression 'goods' is defined in section 4 of the EGCSA as

goods includes a substance and a tangible thing

As the word 'transport' is not defined in the EGCSA the ordinary meaning of the word applies.

Applying the ordinary meaning of 'transport', a vehicle for transporting passengers or goods is a vehicle that carries passengers or goods from one place to another (Re Port of Brisbane v. Deputy Commissioner of Taxation [2004] AATA 222; (2004) 55 ATR 1029).

To determine if a vehicle is for transporting passengers or goods, consideration may be given to its design. The design of a vehicle may assist in determining whether it is a type of vehicle for carrying passengers or goods. Examples of vehicles for transporting passengers or goods include buses and tanker trucks. Examples of vehicles not for transporting passengers or goods include mobile cherry-pickers, mobile cranes and front-end loaders.

In this case, although the street sweeper is designed specifically for cleaning streets, it has a capacity to transport waste matter in its hopper from the job site to the disposal site. The capacity to transport waste matter is an integral part of the design of the vehicle.

The waste carried in the hopper meets the definition of 'goods' in section 4 of the EGCSA.

Because the street sweeper transports waste matter in its hopper it is a vehicle for transporting goods for the purposes of subsection 43(1) of the EGCSA.

Date of decision: 15 September 2005

Legislative References:
Energy Grants (Credits) Scheme Act 2003
section 4
subsection 43(1)

Case References:
Re Port of Brisbane v. Deputy Commissioner of Taxation
[2004] AATA 222
(2004) 55 ATR 1029

Keywords
EGCS on-road
Vehicle for transporting passengers or goods

Business Line: Indirect Tax

Date of publication: 23 September 2005

ISSN: 1445-2782

history

	Date:	Version:
	15 September 2005	Original statement
You are here	1 July 2012	Archived

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