Over the last decade, the government has become accustomed to
announcing significant tax changes well in advance of legislative
enactment. In many instances these tax changes are
"effective" from the date of the announcement. This means
that if/when the law is introduced the changes operate on a
retrospective basis.
As a result of this penchant for effectively enacting
legislative change by media release, and the fact that there is
often a significant time delay between the announcement and the law
change, the Australian Taxation Office ("ATO") has been
administering the expected law change as if it were actually law.
In addition, taxpayers have been forced to understand and apply
these anticipated changes in making decisions about investments,
undertaking transactions and generally complying with their tax
obligations. Over time these "legislative announcements"
have created a backlog of 92 unenacted measures – some of
which the ATO has been administering as law for
