Income Tax Point-in-Time Service Updates

Friday 7 July 2017 @ 12.08 p.m.

The Income Tax Point-in-Time Service has been updated to include the latest amendments from the:

  • Social Services Legislation Amendment (Energy Assistance Payment and Pensioner Concession Card) Act 2017 (No. 46 of 2017);

  • Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Measures No. 2) Act 2017 (No. 55 of 2017);

  • Treasury Laws Amendment (Accelerated Depreciation For Small Business Entities) Act 2017 (No. 56 of 2017);

  • Treasury Laws Amendment (Foreign Resident Capital Gains Withholding Payments) Act 2017 (No. 57 of 2017);

  • Treasury Laws Amendment (Medicare Levy and Medicare Levy Surcharge) Act 2017 (No. 58);

  • Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Act 2017 (No. 59 of 2017);

  • Treasury Laws Amendment (Major Bank Levy) Act 2017 (No. 64 of 2017);

  • Treasury Laws Amendment (GST Low Value Goods) Act 2017 (No. 77 of 2017); and

  • Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2017.

Act 46 of 2017

Schedule 1 will pay a one-off energy assistance payment to recipients of the age pension, disability support pension and parenting payment single, together with recipients of various veterans’ payments, who are payable and residing in Australia on 20 June 2017. 

Schedule 2 will provide a pensioner concession card to various former social security pensioners and veterans’ payments recipients where the recipient’s payment or pension was cancelled on 1 January 2017 due to the rebalancing of the assets test parameters by the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Fair and Sustainable Pensions) Act 2015.

Act 55 of 2017

The amendments in Schedule 1 make changes to measures enacted through the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fair and Sustainable Superannuation) Act 2016 to support the integrity of the measures and ensure the law operates as intended.

The amendments relate to the following measures that were included in that Act - the transfer balance cap; changes to the concessional contribution rules; changes to the non-concessional contribution rules; objective of superannuation; changes to the transition to retirement income stream rules; capital gains tax relief for superannuation funds; and streamlining of administrative processes.

Act 56 of 2017

Schedule 1 to this Act amends the tax law to extend by 12 months to 30 June 2018 the period during which small business entities can access expanded accelerated depreciation rules. This extension provides a boost to small business activity and investment for another year.

Act 57 of 2017

Schedule 1 to this Act will amend the Taxation Administration Act 1953 to modify the foreign resident capital gains withholding payments regime to:

increase the withholding rate to 12.5 per cent; and reduce the withholding threshold to $750,000.

Act 58 of 2017

The Act amends the Medicare Levy Act 1986 and the A New Tax System (Medicare Levy Surcharge - Fringe Benefits) Act 1999 to increase:

  • the Medicare levy low-income thresholds for individuals and families (along with the dependent child/student component of the family threshold) in line with movements in the consumer price index (CPI);
  • the Medicare levy low-income threshold for individuals and families eligible for the seniors and pensioners tax offset (along with the dependent child/student component of the family threshold), in line with movements in the CPI; and
  • the Medicare levy surcharge low-income threshold in line with movements in the CPI.

Act 59 of 2017

Schedule 1 - Australian participants in British nuclear tests and British Commonwealth Occupation Force 

Schedule 1 of the Act would amend the Australian Participants in British Nuclear Tests (Treatment) Act 2006 (APBNTTA) to provide people already covered under the APBNTTA (British Nuclear Test Participants), as well as Australian veterans of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force and civilians present at a British nuclear test area during a relevant period with treatment for all conditions.

Schedule 2 - Work test for intermediate or special rate of pension

Schedule 2 of the Act would amend the current outdated work history restrictions for the Special and Intermediate Rates of Disability Pension provided in the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 to better reflect modern working arrangements. The changes would remove the current requirement for claimants over 65 to have worked for 10 years with the same employer, and for self-employed clients to have worked a minimum of 10 years in the same profession, trade, vocation or calling. Instead, the work history requirement for Special and Intermediate Rates of Disability Pension would just require a period of 10 continuous years of work in any field or vocation prior to applying for the Special or Intermediate Rates of Disability Pension.

Schedule 3 - Rehabilitation programs 

Schedule 3 of the Act would insert instrument making powers into the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988 (DRCA) and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004, enabling the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission to determine a class of persons eligible to participate in an early access to rehabilitation pilot programme. Certain other amendments are made by this Schedule to break the nexus between acceptance of liability and undertaking rehabilitation, as currently Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (anticipated to become the DRCA on 1 July 2017) and MRCA claimants have to wait until their initial liability claim is accepted before they can access rehabilitation services.

Act 64 of 2017

The Major Bank Levy Act 2017 (Major Bank Levy Act) will introduce a levy on authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) with total liabilities of greater than $100 billion. The levy is imposed at a rate of 0.015 per cent on certain liabilities of the ADI that are reported to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) on a quarterly basis under a reporting standard.

Schedule 1 to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Major Bank Levy) Act 2017 amends the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Act 1998, the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001, the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 and the Taxation Administration Act 1953 to specify certain administrative features relating to the major bank levy, including the requirement that the levy is payable to the Commissioner of Taxation (Commissioner) quarterly.

Act 77 of 2017

Schedule 1 to this Act amends the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999to ensure that goods and services tax (GST) is payable on certain supplies of low value goods that are purchased by consumers and are imported into Australia.

The amendments make supplies of goods valued at $1,000 or less at the time of sale connected with the indirect tax zone if the goods that are supplied are offshore low value goods. This ensures that such supplies are subject to GST, consistent with equivalent supplies made within Australia.

Amendments in the Regulation

These regulations amend the Income Tax Assessment Regulations 1997, Retirement Savings Accounts Regulations 1997 and the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994 to enable new innovative retirement income stream products to be offered from 1 July 2017.

The amendments made by Acts 46, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 64 and 77 and the Regulation have been updated in the Point-in-Time Income Tax Service current to 7 July 2017. (NB: Subscription required).

If you are not already a subscriber to this or other Point-in-Time Services then please contact us to find out more or to take a free trial.