NSW Higher Penalties for Taxation Administration Breaches

Revenue, Fines and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023

12 Sep 2023: Passed by Parliament and signed off by the governor.

This bill kicks in: TBA

Legislative Assembly

Legislative Council

Assent

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Topics

first home buyers land tax property tax tax avoidance taxation traffic offences unclaimed money

Introduced by: Michael Daley MP (ALP); The Hon Daniel Mookhey MLC (ALP)

Links to official parliament websites

Official page: progress through parliament

Official page: bill text and explanatory notes

Effects of this bill

If this bill passes, it means that:

Fines jump from 100 to 500 penalty units (2026: $11,000 to $55,000) for taxation administration breaches
Applicants for unclaimed money can now lodge objections to the Chief Commissioner's determinations; they can also apply to the Supreme Court for a review of those decisions
Work and development orders can now be made for people living outside New South Wales
One specific land tax exemption is removed
Payroll tax grouping schemes are now classified as tax avoidance schemes
The time limit for lodging objections now includes property tax for first home buyer choices
The Fines Act now clarifies when a person driving a vehicle or vessel is not liable to pay a penalty reminder notice

The Debate

What different members said when this bill was debated:

Damien Tudehope LIB

“As the Minister for Finance outlined, the Revenue, Fines and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 amends 12 Acts relating to the revenue function, including amendments to State taxation legislation to enhance revenue integrity; ensure the equity of exemptions and concessions, address anomalies, which is a good thing; respond to court decisions, another good thing; close tax avoidance loopholes; c…”

Official source →

Abigail Boyd GRN

“As the treasury and finance spokesperson for The Greens, I support the Revenue, Fines and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. The bill introduces a number of amendments to 12 separate pieces of revenue and related legislation, as has been stated already during this debate.”

Official source →

Courtney Houssos ALP

“As I said earlier, the bill strengthens the integrity of our taxation and fines systems, and it is worth noting that revenue legislation does need regular amendment to ensure that it remains effective, up-to-date and fit for the purpose of funding the vital services that New South Wales needs. As I said in my second reading speech, there are seven broad categories of reform in this bill.”

Official source →

News articles and press releases

Revenue, Fines and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023

Mr MICHAEL DALEY, Attorney General — 2023-08-01

The reforms in the bill fall into seven broad categories: first, amendments to State taxation legislation to enhance revenue integrity, ensure the equity of exemptions and concessions, address anomalies, respond to court decisions, close tax avoidance loopholes, increase penalties and reduce red tape; second, amendments to government sector finance legislation to support the recovery of act-of-grace payments made under government programs; third, amendments to fines legislation to enhance administration and create new offences relating to false nominations and false or misleading information, with the latter offence also being incorporated into State debt legislation; fourth, amendments to police legislation to enable sharing of fines information between the NSW Police Force and Revenue NSW; fifth, amendments to unclaimed money legislation to aid recovery of incorrectly paid money and im