GST Point-in-Time Service Updates

The GST Service has been updated to include the Excise and Customs Legislation Amendment (Streamlining Administration) Act 2024 (Cth) (Act No 51 of 2024), the Treasury Laws Amendment (Support for Small Business and Charities and Other Measures) Act 2024 (Cth) (Act No 52 of 2024), the Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering Better Financial Outcomes and Other Measures) Act 2024 (Cth) (Act No 67 of 2024), and the Competition and Consumer Amendment (State/Territory Energy Law) Regulations 2024 (Cth). 

Act 51 of 2024

This Act amends the Excise Act 1901 (Cth) to streamline licence application and renewal requirements for excise licences to store or manufacture excisable goods (other than tobacco goods). Additionally, the Act also amends the Customs Act 1901 (Cth) to streamline licence application and renewal requirements for customs warehouse licences that authorise the warehousing of Excise-equivalent goods. The Act also establishes a public register of entities that hold such licences.

Act 52 of 2024

This Act amends the law relating to taxation, financial services and corporations, and for related purposes. This includes amendments to: 

• the Income Tax (Transitional Provisions) Act 1997 (Cth) (the IT (TP) Act) to increase the instant asset write-off threshold from $1,000 to $20,000 and to provide small businesses (with an aggregated annual turnover of less than $50 million) with access to a bonus deduction equal to 20 per cent of the cost of eligible assets or improvements to existing assets that support electrification or more efficient energy use; 
• the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (the Corporations Act) in order to reinstate the Australian Financial Complaints Authority's (AFCA) jurisdiction to hear complaints relating to superannuation, whether or not they meet the definition of superannuation complaint in the Corporations Act. These changes intend to reinstate the original policy intent, in light of the decision in MetLife v AFCA [2022] FCAFC 173, which has led to AFCA being unable to consider certain complaints about insurance policies held inside superannuation.

Act 67 of 2024

This Act makes miscellaneous and substantive amendments to various Acts in the Treasury portfolio. This includes amendments to:

• align the general anti-avoidance provisions in the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act 1987 (Cth) (the PRRTA Act) with the more robust drafting approach of the general anti-avoidance provisions in Part IVA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth) (the ITAA 1997);
• the PRRTA Act to clarify the meaning of the phrase ‘exploration for petroleum’; and
• the ITAA 1997 to:
• clarify that Mining, quarrying or prospecting rights (MQPRs) cannot be depreciated for income tax purposes until they are used, not merely held; and the circumstances in which the issue of new rights over areas covered by existing rights lead to income tax adjustments;
• make changes to the location tax offset and producer tax offset. 

Competition and Consumer Amendment (State/Territory Energy Law) Regulations 2024

These Regulations amend regulation 7A of the Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010 (Cth), to prescribe the Energy (Renewable Transformation and Jobs) Act 2024 (Qld) and any regulations and directions made under it as a State/Territory energy law, for the purposes of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). 

These amendments have been updated in the Point-in-Time GST Service current to 1 August 2024. (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.