The Treasury Legislation Amendment (Repeal Day) Bill 2014 has been passed by the Senate without amendment including the following matters.

Payslip reporting

The Treasury Legislation Amendment (Repeal Day) Bill 2014 (the ‘Bill’) amends the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (‘SISA’) to repeal the payslip reporting provisions.

The payslip reporting provisions in SISA require employers to include in employee payslips information prescribed by the regulations. While it was intended that regulations be made so that employers had to report on payslips the amount of superannuation contributions and the date on which the employer expects to pay them, this has not occurred. There are, however, existing requirements in the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Fair Work Regulations 2009 for employers to include in payslips the amount of superannuation contributions they are liable to make.

This measure commences on the day this Bill receives assent. It was released as an exposure draft for public consultation on 27 August 2014.

[FJM Note: it seems retrograde if there is no law requiring employers to report the amount of contributions made as well as when they were made.]

Consolidation and repeal of tax provisions

The Bill also:

  • consolidates duplicated taxation administration provisions contained in various taxation Acts into a single set of provisions in Sch 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (‘TAA’);
  • repeals spent or redundant taxation laws; and
  • moves longstanding regulations into the primary law.

The amendments generally apply from the day the Bill receives assent. However, the repeal of the duplicated taxation administration provisions and the transfer of certain regulations to the primary law are delayed till 1 July 2015 to give the Commissioner time to make any necessary changes to administrative systems. This measure was released as an exposure draft for public consultation on 27 August 2014.

Consolidation of the Commissioner’s evidence gathering powers

The Bill amends TAA Sch 1 to consolidate and centrally locate the rules around:

  • the Commissioner’s power to obtain information under Div 353 in Sch 1; and
  • how documents issued by the Commissioner or by taxpayers are to be treated as evidence in judicial proceedings contained in Div 350 in Sch 1.

so that the rules now cover all the taxation laws, not just a number of specified tax regimes with duplicated rules covering the other tax regimes.

To remove any doubt that TAA is intended to bind the Crown in each of its capacities, a provision has also been inserted putting the matter beyond doubt and ensuring the consolidation of the taxation administration provisions into TAA does not alter the ongoing policy objective.

Repealing spent or redundant tax laws

The Bill repeals the following spent or redundant provisions:

  • Pt VIII of the Fringe Benefits Tax Assessment Act 1986
  • Pt IX of the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act 1987, and
  • s 23AC, 82N and 202DA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.

Moving regulations into the primary law

The Bill also moves the content of certain longstanding and static regulations from the Income Tax Regulations 1936 into ITAA 1936 or TAA.

These include provisions relating to:

  • convertible notes;



  • interest withholding tax and publicly offered debentures;



  • annual investment income reports and tax file number reports;



  • tax file numbers and indirectly held investments; and


  • approved forms.

Tax law rewrite: definition of Australia

The Bill also rewrites provisions from ITAA 1936 into ITAA 1997 and TAA. The rewritten provisions define “Australia” for income tax purposes. The income tax concept applies across other taxes, with amendments as required in order to retain intended policy differences.

The rewritten provisions include drafting changes needed to conform to the legislative approach used in ITAA 1997, to simplify how the law is expressed, and to remove any ambiguity about the operation of the law.

In particular, the Bill rewrites s 6AA and 7A of ITAA 1936 into ITAA 1997. These amendments also ensure that the new definition of “Australia” is then cross-referenced across taxation laws with appropriate and clearly articulated adjustments being made to the definition in order to preserve intended policy differences.

This rewrite applies to tax periods or quarters commencing on or after 1 July 2015. This measure was released as an exposure draft for public consultation on 27 August 2014.

[IT 12.2.15]