EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 409
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE TREASURER
These regulations amending the Sales Tax Regulations are consequential upon amendments to the sales tax laws by the Taxation Laws Amendment Act 1984 (the amending Act) which, inter alia, substantially increased the maximum levels of court-imposed penalties for offences against the taxation laws and consolidated in the Taxation Administration Act 1953 provisions pertaining to offences and prosecutions under those laws.
Regulation 1 facilitates references to the Sales Tax Regulations which are referred to as the “Principal Regulations”.
By regulation 2 the penalty prescribed by regulation 17 of the Principal Regulations for incorrectly quoting sales tax certificate of registration is increased from $40 to $500.
Regulation 3 increases from $40 to $500 the penalties prescribed by regulation 60 for offences relating to the signing of applications, statements, returns or other documents required by the sales tax laws.
Regulation 4 will repeal regulations 70, 71, 75, 77 and 78 which contain procedural rules relating to prosecutions for offences under the sales tax laws. The repeal of these regulations is consequential upon the repeal of Parts VIII and IX of the Sales Tax Assessment Act (No 1) 1930 and the enactment of consolidated offence and prosecution provisions relating to the various taxation laws in Part III of the Taxation Administration Act 1953.
Where a penalty for a contravention of, or a failure to comply with, a provision of the Principal Regulations is not expressly provided by that provision, regulation 82 stipulates that the maximum penalty on conviction is $40. Regulation 5 will increase that maximum penalty to $500.
Form J of the Second Schedule (Notice of Election by the Defendant to Have a Taxation Prosecution Tried in a Higher Court) relates to existing regulation 78. That form will be omitted by regulation 6 in consequence of the repeal of regulation 78 by regulation 4.
By reason of section 8 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, the Commissioner may continue to institute prosecutions under section 45 of the Sales Tax Assessment Act (No. 1) 1930 in relation to offences specified in the section that are committed prior to its repeal by the amending Act. Paragraph 7(1)(a) contains transitional rules which will ensure that those regulations which presently apply to such prosecutions - namely, regulations 70, 71 and 77 - continue to apply notwithstanding the repeal of those regulations by regulation 4. Similarly, regulation 78 and Form J of the Second Schedule will, by virtue of paragraph 7(1)(b), continue to stipulate the manner of making an election under section 56 of the Sales Tax Assessment Act (No. 1) 1930 to have certain prosecutions tried in the High Court or a Supreme Court.
Sub-regulation 7(2) makes it clear that, where the term “the Act” is used in sub-regulation 7(1), it is to be taken to mean the Sales Tax Assessment Act (No. 1) 1930.