Taxation Law Subject Guide
Legislation
The following links provide online access to Australian legislation, including Acts and regulations. The UNSW Freehills Law Library also holds print copies of Australian legislation, which may be useful for locating older, superseded legislation.
| ComLaw |
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ComLaw is the Commonwealth Attorney General's Department portal to commonwealth legislation including Acts, Bills and Legislative Instruments. |
| AustLII |
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The Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) provides free internet access to Commonwealth, state and territory legislation. |
| LawNow (LexisNexis AU) |
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Provides current and historical Acts and regulations for NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT. Also provides information on the progress of Bills through Parliament. |
| ATO Legal Database |
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Provides the full text of core Federal tax legislation. |
| CCH Tax Library |
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Provides the full text of taxation legislation by subject. |
| Taxpoint |
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News services covering the latest tax news and issues; Tax commentaries covering taxes such as capital gains, superannuation and fringe benefits tax; Analytical services covering commentary-style services for a detailed understanding of federal taxation law. |
Interpreting Legislation
Extrinsic materials assist in interpreting legislation and include Bill, explanatory memoranda, explanatory statements and ministerial determinations.
| ATO Legal Database : Extrinsic Materials |
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Includes explanatory memoranda and explanatory statements for regulations and legislation. |
| Tax Solution Finder (CCH) |
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Provides the full text of tax Bills and explanatory memoranda and ministerial determinations. |
| ComLaw |
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ComLaw provides access to Commonwealth Bills and explanatory memoranda. |
| Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) |
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Provides the full text of parliamentary debates including Second Reading Speeches. |
Rulings and Determinations
Rulings and determinations of the ATO are available online via the following sources.
| ATO Legal Database : Rulings and Determinations |
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Provide rulings and determinations made by the ATO. |
| CCH Tax Library |
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Includes ATO rulings in a number of areas such as income tax, GST and FBT. |
| ATO Legal Database : ATO Case Decision Summaries |
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Provides summaries of ATO tax case decisions. |
Cases
Most Australian taxation cases are available via the following online databases. The UNSW Freehills Law Library collection contains print law reports which may be useful for locating older cases not available online. Print copies of law reports can be found by searching the Library's catalogue.
| CaseBase (LexisNexis AU) |
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CaseBase allows you to search for a specific case, or cases by subject. It provides the case's subsequent history as a precedent, the legislation and other cases considered in the decision and a digest summary of the case. Links to full text are provided where available. |
| FirstPoint (Lawbook Online) |
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Firstpoint allows you to search or browse for Australian cases by subject areas or search by keywords. A digest summary of the case is provided, along with information about legislation and cases considered in the judgment and the case's subsequent treatment as a precedent. |
| ATO Legal Database : Case Judgement |
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Provides the full text of taxation cases from Australian courts, including Decision Impact Statements. Also includes selected taxation cases from New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. |
| AustLII |
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AustLII provides online access to recent Commonwealth, state and territory case law. |
| CCH : Australian Tax Cases (part of the CCH Tax Library) |
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Company Law Cases are available via the CCH Corporations Law Library and Australian Tax Cases are available form the CCH Tax Library. |
International Resources
The following sources provide a starting point for international legal research.
| LexisNexis |
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LexisNexis provides authoritative legal, news, public records and business information; including tax and regulatory publications. This database is an ideal place to start searching for international and foreign taxation law sources. |
| Westlaw |
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Westlaw provides access to international and foreign law legal resources. Includes news, journals, legislation and cases. |
| WorldLII |
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Provides free internet access to international and foreign legislation, case law and journals in full text. |
| Current Legal Information |
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A UK service that inlcudes databases that index legal journals, provides digest sumaries of track the citation of cases and legislation in judgments. |
