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ZA 3: Transitional provisions
or “Rules for understanding references to previous Income Tax Acts”

You could also call this:

“Keeping old tax rulings valid under new laws”

If you applied for a private ruling, product ruling, or status ruling before the 2008-09 income year, or if a public ruling was issued before that time, this section might apply to you. It also applies if the ruling was about a tax law that was replaced by the Income Tax Act 2007.

The old ruling will still work with the new law. This means that even though the old law changed, your ruling will still have the same effect as it did before.

If your ruling is still valid under this section, the Commissioner can’t make a new ruling about how the new law applies to your arrangement. They also can’t make a new ruling about how this section applies to your arrangement.

This helps make sure that you can rely on the rulings you got, even when the law changes.

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Next up: ZA 5: Saving of accrual determinations

or “Old tax decisions remain valid under new laws”

Part Z Repeals, amendments, and savings

ZA 4Saving of binding rulings

  1. This section applies when, and to the extent to which,—

  2. either—
    1. an applicant has applied for a private ruling, a product ruling, or a status ruling, before the beginning of the 2008–09 income year on an arrangement that is entered into, or that the applicant seriously contemplates will be entered into before the commencement of this Act; or
      1. a public ruling is issued before the beginning of the 2008–09 income year; and
      2. the binding ruling is about—
        1. a taxation law that is repealed by section ZA 1 (the old law); or
          1. a taxation law in the Income Tax Act 1994 that preceded and corresponded to the old law; and
          2. a new taxation law that corresponds to the old law (the new law) comes into force at the commencement of this Act; and
            1. in the absence of this section, the commencement of this Act would mean that the binding ruling would cease to apply because of section 91G of the Tax Administration Act 1994.
              1. The binding ruling is treated as if it were made about the new law, so that the effect of the ruling at the commencement of this Act is the same as its effect before the commencement.

              2. To the extent to which a binding ruling continued by subsection (2) exists and applies to an arrangement, or to a person and an arrangement, the Commissioner must not make a binding ruling on how—

              3. the new law applies to the arrangement or to the person and the arrangement; or
                1. this subsection applies to the arrangement or to the person and the arrangement.
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                  Notes
                  • Section ZA 4 list of defined terms apply: inserted, on , by section 74 of the Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Act 2016 (2016 No 27).