Record-keeping for land supplies

Sections 55(7)(dc), 75(3D), 75(3E), 78F(3), 78F(5) and 78F(7) of the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985

Various provisions related to information that must be provided and the records that are required to be kept for a zero-rated land transaction have been clarified. These are:

• When a member of a group of companies is a party to such a transaction, statements and information provided by or to a member are treated as being provided by or to the group's representative member.
• In a nominee situation, the information required can be provided by the nominee or the contractual purchaser in respect of the nominee. If the purchaser provides the information it is to be based on the purchaser's expectations of the circumstances of the nominee.
• An agent acting on behalf of an undisclosed principal does not have to be registered for GST. Instead, the agent may provide its tax file number in lieu of a GST registration number and the vendor must retain this tax file number for its records.
• An agent must keep the registration number of the principal, including in circumstances when the principal is expected to be a registered person.

Application date

The changes apply from 1 April 2011.