The Institute continues to be very active on the tax-lobbying front and has had success in a number of areas. Two recent and significant wins include the Australian Law Reform Commission’s recommendation to introduce statutory privilege in relation to tax advice provided by appropriately qualified and regulated professional accounting advisers, and the recent announcement by the government to retain the office of Inspector General Of Taxation as an independent statutory body (refer Edition 13/2008 of the Tax Bulletin.  
 
Other wins include the January 2008 announcement regarding proposed changes to the tax consolidation regime following certain capital gains tax rollovers. This followed the Institute’s extensive discussions with the Assistant Treasurer’s office (refer Edition 4/2008 of the Tax Bulletin. Members may recall that Australian business was adversely affected by the previous government’s October 2007 announcement, particularly with respect to scrip-for-scrip transactions. The Institute is now working with the current government and Treasury to ensure this later announcement is appropriately implemented.  
 
Other advocacy areas where the Institute has been particularly active include the proposed new legislative framework for tax practitioner and tax agent registration issues, taxation of financial arrangements stages 3 and 4 and issues arising out of Commissioner of Taxation v McNeil [2007] HCA 5 (refer Edition 13/2008 of the Tax Bulletin. 
 
In addition to ongoing lobbying initiatives, the Institute has also been proactive with the development of two timely leadership reports in partnership with Ernst & Young and Deloitte, respectively. 
 
The joint report with Ernst & Young , released on Monday, 7 April 2008 focuses on tax as a key issue in developing policies to combat climate change and recommends appropriate tax treatment of carbon emissions trading in Australia.  
 
The Institute is also looking for consideration of an alternative simplified taxation regime for small to medium-sized entities, and its proposal with Deloitte will be presented to government at the end of April.  
 
 
Relevant links:

• The Institute: The Tax Policy Dimension
• The Institute: Pre-budget submission
• The Institute: Tax Bulletin Edition 4/2008
• The Institute: Tax Bulletin Edition 13/2008