Australia

This page looks at internet taxation developments in Australia. It also highlights federal and state/territory agencies.

The Australian Taxation Office released its second report on Tax & The Internet in 2000, outlining the federal government's ecommerce taxation policy. 

The first report was published in 1997. The second report, of around 200 pages, includes responses to the initial report and policy developments at a national and international level.

     federal agencies

You may wish to explore two sites -

Australian Taxation Office (ATO) - apart from being people who hoover up your money, they have one of the best Australian government sites on the Web

Australian Customs Service (ACS) - cute sniffer dogs but still operating with a pre-digital mindset

     state/territory agencies

The colonies did not relinquish all taxation powers at the time of federation and thus maintain a range of revenue raising measures, usually under an Office of State Revenue (OSR) within the treasury portfolio for the particular state.

Those agencies include

Australian Capital Territory Revenue Office | here
The ACT Revenue Office assists the ACT Government to develop and implement "a simple and equitable tax system for the ACT and administrative and regulatory processes for the collection of revenue which are efficient and cost effective for the Government and taxpayers"

New South Wales Office of State Revenue | here
The OSR administers NSW State taxation, collects revenue, develops policy and implements legislation relating to State taxation for and on behalf of the people of NSW.

Northern Territory Revenue Management |here
Territory Revenue Management comprises revenue development functions and the Office of the Commissioner for Taxes. It provides administrative machinery for the collection of Territory taxes and mineral and petroleum royalties.

Queensland Office of State Revenue | here
The Office of State Revenue (OSR) is responsible for the administration of the taxation aspects of Queensland Treasury's Revenue Program, including Stamp Duty, Pay-roll Tax, Land Tax and miscellaneous taxes. It has around 300 staff. Revenue collections for the 2000-01 financial year exceeded $3,000 million.

South Australia RevenueSA | here
The Commissioner of State Taxation (aka RevenueSA) is responsible for management, collection and enforcement of the State�s taxation revenue; government rebate incentive schemes; some lottery and gaming regulatory functions; Tobacco and and petroleum licensing and subsidy functions; the Emergency Services Levy (ESL) and management of the First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) scheme

Tasmania State Revenue Office | here
Tasmania's Department of Treasury & Finance operates through the State Revenue Office (SRO), supported by the Revenue, Gaming & Licensing Division.

Victoria State Revenue Office (SRO) | here
The State Revenue Office (SRO) is the Victorian Government's major tax collection agency, administering a range of taxes and duties that include land tax, pay-roll tax, financial institutions duty, debits tax and stamp duty. It has around 400 staff and collects around $6000 million in revenue annually.

Western Australia Office of State Revenue | here
The WA Office of State Revenue, a unit of the Department of Treasury & Finance, is concerned with revenue collection (principally land tax, pay-roll tax, stamp duty and debits tax) and administration of a number of grants schemes such as 1st Home Owner support. It has a staff of around 220.

     GST

Three useful sites for information on the Goods & Services Tax are:

the Australian Treasury Department site provides a range of information sheets and briefing documents about the joy of tax. An essential if you're a macroeconomist, a policy wonk or just like to wallow in PDFs

more practical, or merely more responsive because they deal with the public on a daily basis, the Australian Taxation Office site features a wealth of information about the GST (admittedly not all of which we understand)

ACOSS's online contribution to tax reform debate features analysis by churches and the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS)

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