Explanatory Memorandum Bills from 1997 Relating to Negatively Gearing
Dear Department of the Treasury,
If possible, please treat this as an informal or administrative request. Otherwise, please treat this as a formal request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
I am seeking copies of all the Explanatory Memorandum Bills to amend the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 for expenses incurred in gaining or producing assessable income from residential premises.
I am researching policies around negative gearing. Negative gearing by property investors reduced personal income tax revenue in Australia by $600 million in the 2001/02 tax year, $3.9 billion in 2004/05 and $13.2 billion in 2010/11.
Yours faithfully,
Julie Middleton
OFFICIAL
Dear Ms Middleton
We write in relation to your (below) request for administrative release of documents relating to negative gearing.
There is no legislative provision in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 that specifically provides for negative gearing. Instead, it is permitted under general and long-standing principles of deducting expenses that are incurred in gaining or producing assessable income. The general rule about deductibility is currently contained in section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, which itself was re-written from subsection 51(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.
Noting that they do not contain any references to negative gearing, the explanatory memorandums for the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 can be accessed online through www.austlii.edu.au and the explanatory memorandum for the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 is held by the Parliamentary Library.
Please note that requests for documents that are more than 20 years old are not valid under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. Commonwealth records obtained under the FOI Act are subject to the open access period, where documents move to the National Archives of Australia (NAA) after a 20 year period. The Archives Act 1983 is administered by the NAA and you can apply for documents directly from them. Further information can be found on the NAA website: https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-researc....
We trust this information provided to you satisfies your request. We intend to close this request on Tuesday 30 March 2021 unless we hear from you by COB Monday 29 March 2021.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Officer
The Treasury
Ph: +61 2 6263 2800
e: [email address]
OFFICIAL