THERE has been some public misinformation about the Australian Taxation Office’s draft ruling on GST for moveable home estates.
Commissioner Chris Jordan said the ruling was only draft, that no final decision had yet been made and the public was encouraged to set out any concerns in submissions.
“We have not made a final decision about charging GST on moveable home estates,” Mr Jordan said. “We have issued a draft ruling so the community and stakeholders can comment and raise any concerns.
“There has been a bit of public misunderstanding and I just want to make clear that the draft ruling does not apply to caravan parks and won’t come into play retrospectively.”
The draft ruling Goods and Services Tax: supplies made by an operator of a ’moveable home estate’ (GSTR 2013/D2) was released for consultation at the end of October.
The preliminary view in the draft ruling is that a moveable home estate does not fall within the definition of commercial residential premises. This is because it is not sufficiently similar to a caravan park.
Consequently, under the draft ruling, operators would no longer be able to apply the concessionary treatment in Division 87 of the GST Act to their supplies of long-term accommodation to residents.
A final ruling is expected in mid-2014.
