About technical decision summaries
The Tax Counsel Office will progressively publish technical decision summaries of adjudication decisions (from mid-2021) and private ruling decisions (for applications received on or after 1 January 2022 and completed on or after 1 January 2023). They will be published on the Tax Technical website and in the next available issue of the Tax Information Bulletin. Generally, a technical decision summary (TDS) will be published within three months of the final technical decision. Customers will have a month (before the final publishing) to review the document for breaches of confidentiality or sensitivity.
You can read more about the Tax Counsel Office's adjudications and private rulings process on the main Inland Revenue website at these links:
Each TDS will:
- contain the relevant reasons for the Commissioner’s decision, including arguments considered in reaching the decision
- preserve customer identity and protect sensitive information
- include a disclaimer that the TDS is not binding and cannot be relied on and is published as information only.
How you will be involved in the publication of technical decision summaries
Customers who are party to an adjudication or private ruling (or their agents) will be sent a draft summary of the TDS to check it doesn’t breach confidentiality or include any commercially sensitive information. You will be asked to limit any comments to issues of confidentiality or sensitivity only, as we cannot alter the final decision reached. You’ll have one month to comment. If we don’t hear from you within this time we will publish the TDS.
Archived technical decision summaries
Technical decision summaries document a decision made at a certain point in time. This is recognised in the disclaimer. To further emphasise this, technical decision summaries will be archived on the Tax Technical website after 5 years. The summaries will still be available on the website but will be marked as archived.
Technical decision summaries guidelines
Download the full guidelines, which detail the structured approach for all technical decision summaries. They will be updated as required.
If you have any queries please email [email protected]