Following an announcement by the Treasurer that new legislation to be introduced into parliament will help agencies involved in Project Wickenby share information to aid law enforcement, Treasury has released a discussion paper on the review of taxation secrecy and disclosure provisions.

The purpose of the review is to improve the laws that protect taxpayer information and allow disclosure in limited circumstances only in accordance with a prescribed legal process.

CPA Australia's summary of this discussion paper draws attention to the complexity and uncertainty caused by the different tax secrecy and disclosure provisions which exist across several provisions including superannuation, excise, Australian Business Number (ABN) and Tax File Number (TFN) legislation.