NSW Amendments designed to feed information to the ATO for data matching and the ‘National Register of Foreign Ownership of Land Titles’

The object of this Bill is to amend the Taxation Administration Act 1996 (NSW) to enable the NSW Chief Commissioner of State Revenue (the Chief Commissioner) to collect, and disclose to the Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth (the Taxation Commissioner), information about the transfer of freehold and leasehold interests in real property situated in New South Wales, even if:

1. the information is collected only for the purposes of disclosure to the Taxation Commissioner and is not collected under or in relation to the administration of any law of the State (except for the proposed new law), and
2. the information is not disclosed in connection with the administration or execution of any law of the State (except for the proposed new law).

The information is proposed to be used by the Australian Taxation Office for the purposes of data-matching and ensuring compliance with the taxation laws of the Commonwealth. In addition, it is proposed that the information (which will include information about the nationality and residency of vendors and purchasers) be used for the purposes of a National Register of Foreign Ownership of Land Titles to be administered by the Australian Taxation Office. The creation of a National Register was agreed to at the Council on Federal Financial Relations held on 16 October 2015.

The Bill also provides for related amendments to the Conveyancing (Sale of Land) Regulation 2010 (NSW) to prescribe an implied term of a contract for the sale of land that requires a vendor to serve on the purchaser, before completion, a certificate issued under the Land Tax Management Act 1956 (a current land tax certificate) that shows whether there is any land tax charged on the land. It is intended that the application by the vendor for a current land tax certificate will enable the Chief Commissioner to collect information about the vendor for disclosure to the Taxation Commissioner.