Fire and Emergency Services Levy Act 2017

A local council may enter into an arrangement (a levy recovery arrangement) with the Chief Commissioner that enables the local council to refer to the Chief Commissioner, for recovery by the Chief Commissioner, any levy, part of a levy or class of levies, that is payable to the local council in respect of land that is not subject to a rate or charge under the Local Government Act 1993.

If a levy, part of a levy or class of levies (a referred levy) is referred to the Chief Commissioner under a levy recovery arrangement, on the transfer date—

the referred levy (and any interest that accrued before the transfer date) becomes an amount payable to the Chief Commissioner (not to the local council), and

the referred levy ceases to be an assessed levy of the local council, and

the applied provisions of the Taxation Administration Act 1996 apply to the referred levy as if it were a tax under a taxation law payable by the person liable for the levy.

A failure to pay a referred levy is a tax default for the purposes of the applied provisions of the Taxation Administration Act 1996 and, on and from the transfer date, interest on any overdue amount accrues in accordance with that Act (and not at the rate set by the local council).

If the referred levy became overdue before the transfer date, a tax default is taken to occur, for the purposes of the applied provisions, on the transfer date.

The applied provisions of the Taxation Administration Act 1996 are the following provisions of that Act—

Division 1 (Interest) of Part 5,

Division 1 of Part 7,

sections 50 and 55 (which prohibit the giving of false and misleading information),

Division 1 (Tax officers), Division 2 (Investigation) and Division 3 (Secrecy) of Part 9,

sections 114, 115, 116, 118 and 120,

any provisions that are relevant to the interpretation of the above provisions.

To avoid doubt, Part 10 of the Taxation Administration Act 1996 does not apply to a referred levy or to the exercise of any of the Chief Commissioner’s functions under a levy recovery arrangement (including under the applied provisions of the Taxation Administration Act 1996).

Any amount recovered by the Chief Commissioner under a debt recovery arrangement—

is payable to the Consolidated Fund (not to the local council), and

is not to be included in the local council’s relevant payments under Part 7.

Section 571 of the Local Government Act 1993, as it applies to the levy under Part 8, continues to apply in respect of a referred levy as if a reference in that section to the local council were a reference to the Chief Commissioner.

The regulations may make further provision for the application of the Local Government Act 1993 in respect of a referred levy, including by modifying the application of any provision of that Act that applies to a levy that is payable to the local council.

In this section—