Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

First of all, I thank Senator Coonan and Senator Murray for their contribution to the debate on the Tax Laws Amendment (2008 Measures No. 2) Bill 2008. The bill makes a number of improvements to Australia’s tax and superannuation laws. All the measures in this bill are seen to be relatively uncontroversial.

Schedule 1 addresses a technical inconsistency in the tax law when an amount is misappropriated by an employee or agent after they dispose of an asset on behalf of a taxpayer. Schedule 2 removes an anomaly in the superannuation guarantee system by extending the superannuation guarantee late payment offset. To reduce the incidence of employers having to pay the same superannuation amount twice, once as a penalty and once the actual superannuation payment has been made, the period within which an employer can make a contribution for their employee after the due date for making the payment and still be eligible to use the late payment offset is extended.

Schedule 3 amends the tax law to ensure that the market value substitution rule does not apply to certain CGT events. This will provide consistency with C2 CGT events and result in a fairer treatment of taxpayers who may otherwise end up with a tax bill larger than the proceeds of a cancellation of shares. Schedule 4 provides an income tax exemption for the Endeavour executive award and for all research fellowships under this award. Schedule 5 exempts from income tax the first $1,000 of eligible early completion bonuses paid by state and territory governments to apprentices where certain conditions are met.

Schedule 6 amends the list of deductible gift recipients in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. They include the AE2 commemorative Foundation Ltd, Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for youth, Wheelchairs for Kids Inc., the Amy Gillett Foundation, the Spirit of Australia Foundation, the World Youth Day 2008 Trust, the Memorials Development Committee Ltd, the Council for Jewish Community Security, Playgroup Australia Inc., the Dunn Lewis Youth Development Foundation, the Finding Sydney Foundation and Australia for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Amendments in the House added five schedules to the bill. These five schedules are identical to schedules 2 to 6 in the Tax Laws Amendment (2008 measures No. 1) Bill. These amendments were necessary to ensure that certain measures of benefit to taxpayers that were in TLAB 1 are passed before the end of the income year.

Schedule 7 makes tax free superannuation lump sums payed to persons with a terminal medical condition. This important change assists in relieving financial stress which terminally ill persons and their families may be suffering due to their situation. The amendments will have effect for payments made on or after 1 July 2007.

Schedule 8, which like schedules 10 and 11 was introduced by the former government in Tax Laws Amendment (2007 Measures No. 6) Bill, provides a concession for the costs of establishing a carbon sink forest. This measure will encourage the establishment of carbon sink forests and in turn make an important contribution to carbon sequestration.

Schedule 9 extends the beneficiary tax offset to the equine workers hardship wage supplement payment. Schedule 10 provides tax-free status to grants under the Tobacco Growers Adjustment Assistance Program 2006 to tobacco growers who undertake to exit all agricultural enterprises for at least five years. The grants are being paid following the loss of a market in Australia for domestically grown tobacco.

Schedule 11 makes minor technical amendments to the early withdrawal provisions to the Farm Management Deposits scheme. This amendment will improve the Farm Management Deposits scheme by ensuring that all primary producers who are eligible for early withdrawal due to exceptional circumstances will retain the tax benefits.

I would again like to thank those who participated in the debate and I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.