Private ruling: Non-commercial losses
Published: September 2017
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2016 to Year ending 30 June 2027
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2015

Ruling: Q1: Will the Commissioner exercise the discretion in paragraph 35-55(1)(a) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) to allow you to include any losses from your primary production business activity in your calculation of taxable income for the 2015-16 and 2026-27 financial years? | A1: Yes

Relevant facts and circumstances: Your income for non-commercial loss purposes for the financial years 2015-16 to 2026-27 is less than $250,000. You are carrying on a business (the activity). The business is a primarily production business. You submit that you were affected by special circumstances in the 2015-16 and 2026-27 financial years. You submit that the special circumstances impacted on your business in the following ways: ● The occurrence of a region wide bushfire during…., burning through thousands of hectares of forest and other agricultural land ● The fire destroyed the growing crops on your property. ● As a consequence the property needed to be cleared and then replanted. ● The new plantings will reach maturity in a number of years. You expect to produce a profit in the next ten years.

Relevant legislative provisions: Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 subsection 35-10(1) Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 subsection 35-10(2) Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 subsection 35-10(2E) | Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 paragraph 35-55(1)(a)

Reasons for decision: Summary: For the 2009-10 and later financial years, Division 35 of the ITAA 1997 will apply to defer a non-commercial loss from a business activity unless: ● you satisfy the income requirement and you pass one of the four tests ● the exceptions apply, or ● the Commissioner exercises his discretion. In your situation, none of the exceptions would apply and although you satisfy the income requirement, you do not meet any of the four tests in the years of income under consideration. Your losses are therefore subject to the deferral rule, unless the Commissioner exercises his discretion. | Detailed Reasoning - Special circumstances (first limb): The Commissioner's discretion in paragraph 35-55(1)(a) may be exercised for the financial year where the business activity is affected by special circumstances outside the control of the operators of the business activity. Special circumstances are those circumstances which are sufficiently different to distinguish them from the circumstances that occur in the normal course of conducting a business activity. For those individuals who do not satisfy the income requirement, special circumstances are generally those which have materially affected the business activity, causing it to make a loss. Special circumstances can include things like droughts and floods (Taxation Ruling TR 2007/6). | Detailed Reasoning - Nature of the activity (second limb): The Commissioner's discretion in paragraph 35-55(1)(c) may be exercised for the financial year where there is an objective expectation, based on evidence from independent sources, that your business activity will produce assessable income greater than the deductions attributable to it for that year, within a commercially viable period. For the Commissioner to exercise the discretion you must be able to show that the reason your business activity is producing a loss is inherent to the nature of the business and is not peculiar to your situation. | Detailed Reasoning - Interaction between the limbs: As stated above, ordinarily the operation of the first limb is confined to those situations in which the business activity has been affected by special circumstances outside the control of the operators of that activity where, had these circumstances not existed; the activity would have made a tax profit. However, the first limb may also apply to a business activity affected by such circumstances during a time when 'because of its nature' it is not able to produce a tax profit, but this time is still 'within [the] period that is commercially viable for the industry concerned'. In such a case, the enquiry is not whether the activity would have produced a tax profit had the special circumstances not existed (paragraphs 35 55(1)(b) and (c) already recognise that there are reasons outside the control of the operators of the activity why this would not have occurred, regardless of the existence of the special circumstances). In such cases the appropriate enquiry will be whether or not the special circumstances have meant that there is no longer an objective expectation that within the period that is commercially viable for the industry concerned the activity will produce a tax profit. Where the special circumstances are the sole reason why the activity can no longer objectively be expected to produce a tax profit within the period that is commercially viable for the industry concerned, but the activity is now expected to consistently produce a profit at some later time, the discretion may be exercised. Having regard to your full circumstances, it is accepted that your business activity was affected by special circumstances outside your control and that these prevented you meeting one of the four tests within a commercially viable period for the industry. The activity is now expected to produce a tax profit in the 2026-27 financial year. Consequently the Commissioner will exercise his discretion in the 2015-16 to 2026-27 financial years.