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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Friday, 14 May 2004) . . Page.. 2116 ..

The Bill amends the Taxation Administration Act to ensure that directors or former directors of corporations are liable for their corporation’s unpaid taxes. Under this amendment, a director will

be liable from the time the corporation first became liable, even if they are a former director when the assessment is issued. If there was more than one director at the time the corporation became liable to a charge, then each will be jointly and severally liable with the corporation for any unpaid tax.

The Bill also amends the Payroll Tax Act to make every member of a group jointly and severally liable for the payroll tax debts of every other member of the group. This amendment works in conjunction with the Taxation Administration Act provisions but only applies to payroll tax debts as group members share the threshold, thereby creating a distinct connection between the group members. This connection does not exist for other taxes.

clarity

Phoenix companies have been particularly targeted by this Bill. The provisions ensure that debts accrued by phoenix corporations can be pursued through the joint and several liability of the group members, and also through the directors or former directors of the corporations. This breaks the cycle whereby directors dissolve a corporation leaving it with no assets, the debts are written off, and the same director then performs the same business using a different corporation name.

Mr Speaker, I would like the Assembly to note that if corporations comply with the existing legislation and take appropriate measures to pay their tax liabilities their directors will not be affected by this Bill. The provisions are designed to encourage voluntary compliance by corporations and their directors and do not impose any additional penalties on a tax defaulter.

Mr Speaker, I commend the Revenue Legislation Amendment Bill 2004 to the Assembly.

Attachment 7

Document incorporated by the Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, and Minister for Arts and Heritage

Mr Speaker, the Stanhope Government is continuing to meet its responsibilities under the Recommendations of the Board of Inquiry into Disability Services in the ACT.

Today it is my pleasure to table the third six-monthly progress report on the implementation of the Recommendations.

Some nineteen months have now passed since I tabled the Government’s original response to the Inquiry Recommendations. To this end, the third Progress Report is a “full progress report” on the past 19 months — containing details of all activities undertaken against each of the recommendations from September 2002 through to April 2004.

Mr Speaker, I would like to take a moment to highlight a few of our more significant achievements.

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