Treasury has released draft A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Amendment Regulations 2012 implementing measures to amend the financial supply provisions of the GST law.

These measures are:

• simplifying the treatment of hire purchase transactions by making them fully taxable;
• expanding the range of expenses qualifying for a reduced input tax credit to include superannuation funds providing life insurance products, lenders’ mortgage reinsurance and transactional fraud monitoring;
• changes to the reduced input tax credit for trustee and responsible entity services; and
• clarifying the language used in relation to guarantees and indemnities.

The changes are to have effect from 1 July 2012.