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Edited version of your written advice

Authorisation Number: 1051486288705

Date of advice: 19 March 2019

Ruling

Subject: GST and the supply of a going concern

Question

Are the supplies of the Sale Property by each of the Entities under the Asset Sale Agreement a GST-free supply of a going concern for the purposes of section 38-325 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (GST Act)?

Answer

No, the supplies of the Sale Property by each of the Entities under the Asset Sale Agreement is not a GST-free supply of a going concern for the purposes of section 38-325 of the GST Act.

Relevant facts and circumstances

Excluded Property

Non-Seller Sale Property

Assumption

Relevant legislative provisions

A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 Section 9-5

A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 Section 38-325 and

A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 Section 195-1.

Reasons for decision

Section 9-5 of the GST Act provides you make a taxable supply if:

However, the supply is not a taxable supply to the extent that it is GST-free or input taxed.

The supply you made meet the requirements of paragraphs 9-5(a) to (d) of the GST Act. Therefore it needs to be determined if the negative limb of section 9-5 of the GST Act is applicable by considering Subdivision 38J of the GST Act.

Subsection 38-325 (1) of the GST Act provides that the supply of a going concern is GST-free if:

We accept that the supply made by you meet the requirements of paragraph 38-325(1) of the GST Act.

Subsection 38-325(2) of the GST Act provides that a supply of a going concern is a supply under an arrangement under which:

Goods and Services Tax Ruling GSTR 2002/5 Goods and services Tax: when is a ‘supply of a going concern’ GST-free? (GSTR 2002/5) explains what a ‘supply of a going concern’ is and when this supply is GST-free for the purposes of Subdivision 38J of the GST Act.

Supply under an arrangement

Paragraph 19 of GSTR 2002/5 provides that the term ‘supply under an arrangement’ includes a supply under a single contract or supplies under multiple contracts which comprise a single arrangement provided the things supplied relate to the ‘identified enterprise’.

Paragraph 20 of GSTR 2002/5 provides that the supplier and recipient may identify the arrangement and supplies under the arrangement, which in aggregate may comprise the supply of a going concern, in the written agreement required by paragraph 38-325(1)(c) or in any other written agreement that relates to the arrangement.

In this case, the arrangement is constituted by the Asset Sale Agreement and the subsidiary agreements it contemplates. The Sellers and Entity A are parties to the Asset Sale Agreement. Entity B is not a party to the Asset Sale Agreement and is therefore not bound by the Asset Sale Agreement. However, the Asset Sale Agreement identifies Other Property required for the supply of a going concern and provides that the Sellers and Entity A will procure that Entity B sells the Other Property to the Buyer, that is, Entity B will make the supply of the Other Property as part of the said arrangement.

It would therefore stand to reason in this instance that the supply of the Sale Property by the Sellers and Entity A, which includes Other Property held by Entity B, to the Buyer meets the requirement of ‘supply under an arrangement’.

Identified enterprise

Paragraphs 38-325(2)(a) and (b) require the conditions to be satisfied in relation to an ‘identified enterprise’.

The Joint Venture owns the Mine which has been placed into care and maintenance. You have advised us that “each of the Sellers conducts an enterprise in the form of a business of mining and exploration in the state, or phase, of care and maintenance”.

As holders of the Environmental Authority, before carrying out any activity under a mining lease, the Sellers are required to submit a plan of operations to the Chief Executive of the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection and, in carrying out any such activity, comply with the plan of operations. Among other things, the Plan of Operations contains a plan showing where all activities are to be carried out on the land, an action program for complying with the conditions of the Environmental Authority and a rehabilitation program for land disturbed or proposed to be disturbed under each mining lease. Therefore, undertaking care and maintenance at the mine in accordance with the Plan of Operations, Environmental Authority, Mineral Resources Act, Environmental Protection Act and various other governing Acts are some of the many activities undertaken by the Sellers as part of their enterprise.

Whilst we accept that care and maintenance activities are some of the activities necessary to effectually carry on mining operations, we do not accept that the function of care and maintenance is capable of being an enterprise in its own right for the purposes of supplying a going concern. This is because the function of care and maintenance is not operated in the form of a business or in the form of an adventure or concern in the nature of trade in its own right.

See for instance Example 4 of GSTR 2002/5 which illustrates an example where the supply of an activity is not an enterprise in its own right. Paragraphs 33 and 34 of GSTR 2002/5 state:

Further, your Ruling Application and the various documents provided with it such as the Asset Sale Agreement and the Information Memorandum clearly contemplates that at the time of the sale there are significant exploitable reserves of mineral remaining in the Mine. The commercial reasons for the sale as explained in your Ruling Application clearly include the capacity of the buyer to exploit the mineral while undertaking rehabilitation work.

Given the above, we believe the identified enterprise being supplied by you as contemplated by the Asset Sale Agreement and the Information Memorandum is an enterprise of mining and exploration not an enterprise of carrying out care and maintenance at a mine. Care and maintenance are some of the activities that were necessarily undertaken as part of your mining and exploration enterprise.

We will now consider whether all things necessary were supplied for the continued operation of the identified enterprise.

The supplier supplies all of the things necessary for the continued operation of an enterprise

‘The supplier supplies’

This term is explained further in the following paragraphs of GSTR 2002/5:

Paragraph 196 of GSTR 2002/5 recognises that each joint venturer is an entity which is capable of conducting an enterprise and where all of the requirements of section 38-325 of the GST Act are satisfied, it is possible for a joint venturer entity to make a GST-free supply of a going concern.

Based on your facts, we accept that in addition to the Sale Property supplied by the Sellers, the Sale Property held by Entity A and Entity C (one of the Joint Venture Participants) in their own right and Other Property held by Entity B is supplied as agent for all of the Sellers. Therefore we accept that the supply of the Sale Property and the Other Property is made by the Sellers as part of the arrangement that is the subject of this Ruling Application.

‘all of the things necessary for the continued operation of an enterprise’

Paragraph 47 of GSTR 2002/5 provides that the term ‘thing’ is defined in section 195-1 of the GST Act as anything that can be supplied or imported and the things that are necessary for the continued operation of an identified enterprise will vary according to the nature of the enterprise and the thing supplied. In the analysis above we consider the thing supplied is an enterprise of mining and exploration.

Paragraphs 48 to 53 of GSTR 2002/5 provide further analysis of ‘things that the supplier can supply’. In particular paragraphs 50 and 52 state as follows:

Further, paragraphs 72 to 74 of GSTR 2002/5 state:

Paragraph 75 of GSTR 2002/5 identifies two elements that are essential for the continued operation of an enterprise:

Various provisions of the Asset Sale Agreement contemplate the existence of 12 categories of Excluded Property. Some of the categories of the Excluded Property are being supplied to the Buyer either by alternative means to a transfer or are Statutory Licences subject to the Assumption made in the Facts. It is to be noted that on Completion Date, if the Assumption made in the Facts is not realised in relation to the Statutory Licences, than the requirement of paragraph 38-325(2)(a), being the supply of all things necessary for the continued operation of the identified enterprise, will not be met. As such, the supply by the Sellers, Entity A and Entity B will not be a supply of a going concern. (See paragraphs 52 and 107 of GSTR 2002/5).

We accept that, as submitted in your Ruling Application, some of the categories of the Excluded Property are not necessary for the continued operation of the identified enterprise.

However there are some categories of the Excluded Property that are not provided. You have contended that they are not necessary for the continued operation of the Mine in care and maintenance.

Paragraphs 72 to 74 of GSTR 2002/5 state:

In your case, the identified enterprise is a mining and exploration enterprise. The ‘core attributes’ of this enterprise would be the exploration and the mining of the mineral reserves. Care and maintenance are some of the activities conducted during the course of this identified enterprise.

The Sellers need to supply to the Buyer all of the things that are necessary to carry on the identified enterprise so that the Buyer is put in a position to carry on the enterprise if it so chooses, not just some of the activities of that enterprise.

Whilst some of the Excluded Property may not be required to undertake care and maintenance activities, they are required to undertake mining and exploration activities. Further, it is understood from your response to the Further Information request, that the only mining equipment supplied in relation to the underground mine which had been sealed was the ‘longwall’ or items that were ‘physically too large to remove’.

Given the above, we believe the Sellers are not providing all of the things that are necessary for the continued operation of the identified enterprise and in this regard the requirement of section 38-325(2)(a)is not met.

The supplier carries on the enterprise until the day of the supply

Paragraphs 141 to 145 of GSTR 2002/5 state (emphasis added):

The footnote to paragraph 142 of GSTR 2002/5 refers to Aurora Developments (2011) 192 FCR 519 at 574; [2011] FCA 232 at [261] (Aurora) and states:

Further analysis of the Aurora case is provided in paragraphs 29A to 29D of GSTR 2002/5. In particular, it is noted that Justice Greenwood concluded that the sale by Aurora was not a supply of a going concern as:

You have told us through your Ruling Application and the Information Memorandum that mining activities had ceased for both the open cut and the underground mines. Further, the underground mine had been sealed and no care and maintenance activities were conducted in relation to this mine.

The cessation of mining activities was not a short term event due to a requirement to undertake care and maintenance. Rather the mining operations of the Mine had ceased.

From the facts provided, you have ceased operating significant activities associated with your mining and exploration enterprise by placing the Mine into a phase of care and maintenance. The decision to cease mining operations and place the Mine into care and maintenance was an economic decision which represented your continuing withdrawal from your mining and exploration enterprise in preparation for the eventual sale of the assets whilst still meeting the various environmental obligations imposed by the various relevant authorities.

Paragraphs 149 and 150 of GSTR 2002/5 states:

In your case, at the time of supply, there were no mining or exploration activities being conducted on the tenements. Whilst we accept that you were ‘carrying on an enterprise’, all of the activities of the identified enterprise were not active and operating on the day of the supply to effect the supply of a going concern.

Further, in not providing some of the assets as identified above, not all things necessary for the continued operation of the identified enterprise are supplied at the time of the supply.

On this basis, as you do not meet the requirements of subsection 38-325 (2) of the GST Act, your supply is not GST- free and will be a taxable supply.


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