The binding rulings regime and the assessment process

This article demonstrates that decisions by the Commissioner of Taxation to decline to make a private ruling or to make a revised ruling form part of the assessment-making process notwithstanding that the private rulings regime in sch 1 pt 5-5 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth) is ‘quite different’ from the process of assessment to tax under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) and that no assessment immediately issues upon the making of those decisions. In consequence, and despite expressed reservations about whether the High Court decision in FCT v Futuris Corporation Ltd is ‘ultimately sustainable’, discretionary relief will not be attracted for jurisdictional errors in the making of such decisions unless characterised by actual bad faith.