Under the Stamps Act 1958 (Vic), 'premiums' and 'gross premiums' for stamp duty purposes included the GST component of amounts charged by insurers, whether or not GST was separately designated on policy documents. However, retrospective legislation (State Taxation Acts (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 2003) resolved this question for all other parties and periods. The decision also confirms that GST is a liability of the supplier, not a tax collected on behalf of a third party, and that accounting standards treating it as such rest on legally erroneous premises.
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