Updating tax determinations with new census population data - consultation 28/2022

We received one submission that was generally supportive of the proposed updates. (You can access this submission below.) We have therefore updated the tax determinations as proposed.

View the updated Hierarchical Cell Identification Scheme (HCIS) population documents. We have also updated the HCIS area description converter with the latest Census data.

The changes to the Radiocommunications (Transmitter Licence Tax) Determination 2015 take effect on 23 November 2022. This is 50 days after commencement of the Radiocommunications (Transmitter Licence Tax) Amendment Determination 2022 (No. 3). Transmitter licence tax invoices that fall due on or after 23 November 2022 will include these changes.

The changes to the Radiocommunications (Spectrum Licence Tax) Determination 2021 took effect on 5 October 2022. This is the day after the Radiocommunications (Spectrum Licence Tax) Amendment Determination 2022 (No. 1) was registered.

With the release of the 2021 Census of Population and Housing (the 2021 census) by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, we have updated our population information in the Australian Spectrum Map Grid (ASMG).

To keep our tax arrangements up-to-date, we are proposing to amend the Radiocommunications (Spectrum Licence Tax) Determination 2021 and the Radiocommunications (Transmitter Licence Tax) Determination 2015 to update the references from the 2016 census to the 2021 census.

The practical effect of the proposed changes is that spectrum licence taxes and those apparatus licence taxes that are determined by the '$/MHz/pop' calculation will be based on 2021 population data. We are also proposing to update the apparatus licence tax rate for PMTS Class B licences in the '850/900 MHz band' to take account of the changes in population.

Population documents

This link provides access to the population documents (zip 1.5 GB) referred to in the consultation paper.

The file named 'ASMG-PopulationData-2021.csv' provides the 2021 populations for the ASMG/HCIS levels 1, 2, 3 and 4. To help you compare, the population data from the 2011 and 2016 census is provided.

The file named 'ExtASMG-PopulationData-2021.csv' provides the 2021 populations for the ASMG/HCIS levels 00 and 0. To help you compare, we have provided the population data from the 2011 and 2016 census.