Issued by authority of the Assistant Treasurer

A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999

A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1)

Section 177-15 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

The purpose of the amending Regulations is to amend the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Regulations 1999 (the Principal Regulations) to remove the requirements previously specified for documents to be tax invoices or recipient-created tax invoices.

Tax invoices play an important role in the GST system. They are the mechanism by which the GST treatment adopted by a supplier is communicated to a recipient and reconciled with their treatment of an acquisition.

Section 29-70 of the Act provides that entities making a taxable supply must issue a tax invoice to the recipient of the supply within 28 days after being requested by the recipient. Section 29-10 of the Act provides that an entity must, generally, hold a tax invoice before claiming an input tax credit.

The requirements for a document to be a tax invoice are set out in section 29-70 of the Act. They include the requirement that the document must contain such other information as the regulations specify. A number of requirements were specified in regulations 29-70.01 and 29-70.02 of the Principal Regulations.

Following Royal Assent to the amendments contained in Schedule 3 to the Tax Laws Amendment (2010 GST Administration Measures No. 2) Act 2010 (the Amendment Act), section 29-70 of the Act was substantially amended from 1 July 2010, making the requirements for tax invoices in regulations 29-70.01 and 29-70.02 of the Principal Regulations redundant for net amounts for tax periods starting on or after 1 July 2010.

The amending Regulations repealed regulations 29-70.01 and 29-70.02 of the Principal Regulations with effect from 1 July 2010, the date of application of the amendments to the Act.

Public consultation was undertaken on the design and drafting of the overall tax invoice amendments by the issue of a discussion paper, followed by the release of draft legislation for comment. No specific consultation was undertaken on these Regulations as they are minor and mechanical in nature.

The Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

The Regulations commenced on 1 July 2010 and apply in relation to net amounts for tax periods starting on or after 1 July 2010.

The Regulations do not have retrospective effect in substance as the provisions in the Amendment Act impliedly repealed the redundant regulations in relation to net amounts for tax periods starting on or after 1 July 2010. The Regulations expressly repealed the redundant regulations in the same way. As the Regulations do not have retrospective effect in substance, they do not contravene subsection 12(2) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003, which provides for a general rule that regulations may not have retrospective effect if they disadvantage a person’s rights or impose liability on a person. In any event, the Regulations do not operate to disadvantage or impose a liability on any person.