Sources of Commonwealth taxing powers Section 51(ii): taxation power Australia is a federation and
legislative power is distributed between the Commonwealth and the States.
Section 51 enumerates areas of Commonwealth power. Section 51(ii) allows the Commonwealth to enact laws in respect of taxation, but not so as to discriminate between States or parts of states. Similarly, the Commonwealth can impose a tax on a state employee. The Commonwealth is exempt from some state taxes, such as land taxes and stamp duties, being taxes on property. In the case of local council rates, the Commonwealth claims exemption from rates, but "contributes" to local government in the form of grants to at least cover services provided, such as electricity, sewerage, rubbish disposal and the like, but not for road works, parks, general administrative expenses, etc.
Section 96: conditional Commonwealth grants Section 96 (as still effective) provides: :… the Parliament may grant financial assistance to any State on such terms and conditions as the Parliament thinks fit. In introducing the
Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Commonwealth agreed to distribute GST revenues to the States according to a formula set by the
Commonwealth Grants Commission.
Procedural requirements of tax legislation Section 53, The purpose of this section is to protect the powers of the Senate to amend bills. According to section 53, the Senate cannot amend or originate taxation bills (see above). Thus, without the restrictions imposed by section 55, the House of Representatives could prevent the Senate from amending any bill simply by putting something into it concerning taxation. This section effectively prohibits
riders on money bills such as are common in the United States, or
omnibus bills including non-financial measures such as in Canada, and also results in Australian tax law being made up of several pieces of legislation: for example, some Acts setting out how and when tax is to be calculated and paid, while others actually impose the tax. ==See also==