Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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INCOME TAX REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1995 NO. 447

STATUTORY RULES 1995 No. 447

Issued by authority of the Assistant Treasurer

Income Tax Assessment Act 1936

Income Tax Regulations (Amendment)

The purpose of these regulations is to amend Part 8 of the Income Tax Regulations (the Regulations) to make changes in the provisions for beneficiary rebate. The amendments ant necessary because of the need to:

•       provide for AUSTUDY benefits;

•       make a minor technical amendment in Part 8 of the Regulations.

Section 266 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required to give effect to the Act.

Section 160AAA of the Act authorises the making of regulations to determine income tax rebate levels for which recipients of certain benefits and allowances are eligible.

Subsection 160AAA(5) overrides provisions of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 that would otherwise prevent the making of regulations retrospectively. The regulations for the purposes of section 160AAA may apply in relation to a year of income, any part of which occurred before the notification of the regulations.

AUSTUDY

The Student Assistance (Youth Training Allowance - Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 1994 inadvertently removed the qualification for beneficiary rebate from recipients of AUSTUDY. That problem has now been remedied by the enactment of the Taxation Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1995. The Regulations are amended to define the AUSTUDY dependent partner-rate benefit and the "annual benefit amount" relating to that benefit for the income year 1994-95. It is not necessary to provide for rebate for other AUSTUDY beneficiaries as they are automatically covered at the same levels as corresponding social security payments.

Technical amendment

The amending regulations make a minor technical amendment to Part 8 of the Regulations.

The Attachment contains details of the amending regulations.

ATTACHMENT

Details of Proposed Income Tax Regulations Amendment

Commencement

Subregulation 1.1 provides that the Income Tax Regulations are amended as set out in these amending regulations.

Subregulation 2.1 proposes to amend the definition of "YTA rebatable benefit" in Regulation 148 of the Income Tax Regulations to take account of a technical amendment to the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.

Subregulation 2.2 inserts a definition specific to AUSTUDY---"AUSTUDY dependent partnerrate benefit". This benefit is payable to an AUSTUDY student who is partnered and receives the dependent spouse allowance paid under the Student and Youth Assistance Act 1973.

Subregulation 3.1 inserts in subregulation 152(5) of the Income Tax Regulations the annual benefit amount for the "AUSTUDY dependent partner-rate benefit".

Subregulation 4.1 provides that the amendments made by regulations 2 and 3 will apply in relation to a year of income ending after 30 June 1994.