ATO private rulings and objecting to them

An ATO private ruling, often called a private binding ruling (PBR), is the Commissioner's written opinion on how a tax law applies to you in a specific arrangement. It binds the ATO if it applies to you and you follow it. If it goes against you, you can generally object, but only until there is an assessment for the year it covers.

We advise whether a ruling is the right step, prepare applications and object to unfavourable rulings as part of our work on ATO objections, working alongside your accountant or tax agent. Section references are to Schedule 1 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (TAA) unless we say otherwise.

What is an ATO private ruling?

On application, the Commissioner may make a written ruling on how the Commissioner considers a relevant provision applies, or would apply, to you in relation to a specified scheme, including any matter involved in applying it (s 359-5(1), (2)).

• Relevant provisions are those in laws the Commissioner administers about matters such as income tax, fringe benefits tax, GST, excise and withholding tax, and their administration and collection (s 357-55), including penalties and interest charges (ATO ruling TR 2006/11 para 14).
• A scheme is defined widely: any arrangement, plan, proposal, action or course of conduct, proposed or already carried out (TR 2006/11 paras 15, 36).
• Conclusions of fact can be ruled on, such as residency, whether an activity is a business, or an asset's value (ATO practice statement PS LA 2008/3 para 85).

The ATO can't rule directly on other areas of law, such as trust law (TR 2006/11 para 10), or on NSW state taxes.

When does a private ruling bind the ATO?

A ruling binds the Commissioner in relation to you if it applies to you and you rely on it by acting, or not acting, in accordance with it (s 357-60(1)). If a binding ruling sets the amount of tax payable, there can be no shortfall in that amount, so no shortfall interest charge or shortfall penalty on it (s 357-60(1), note 1).

The protection has limits:

• Only the scheme described. If the arrangement is carried out differently, or material facts were left out or misstated, the ruling doesn't bind the ATO (TR 2006/11 para 19).
• Only you. No one else can rely on your ruling (TR 2006/11 para 30AA), although a trustee's ruling about the trust's affairs also covers a replacement trustee and, except for indirect tax and excise rulings, the beneficiaries (s 359-30).
• Only for its period. Unless it states an end time, a ruling other than an indirect tax or excise ruling stops applying at the end of the income year or other accounting period in which it started (s 359-25).
• Only while the law stays the same. It stops applying if the provision is repealed or amended to have a different effect (s 357-60(1), note 2), but carries over to a re-enacted provision so far as it expresses the same ideas (s 357-85).

Except for indirect tax and excise rulings, the ATO can revise a ruling only if neither the scheme nor the income year it relates to has begun, and entering into a contract that requires the scheme counts as beginning it (ss 359-55(1), 357-80).

Does a private ruling bind you?

No. You can stop relying on a ruling at any time, subject to tax law time limits (s 357-65). In the ATO's words, rulings "operate as a shield for the taxpayer, not a sword for the Commissioner" (PS LA 2008/3).

There is no penalty just for not following a ruling, but the ordinary penalties still apply if you fail to take reasonable care, or take a position on a large income tax item that isn't reasonably arguable, and you lose the ruling's protection from interest (s 357-65(1), note; PS LA 2008/3 paras 117–119).

How do you apply for a private ruling?

You, your agent (including your tax agent) or your legal personal representative can apply in the approved form (s 359-10). The ATO accepts any written application with the required information, documents and declaration, not just its standard forms (PS LA 2008/3 paras 89–90).

The ATO now has a single Private ruling application form, which you can use for yourself or for someone else, plus forms for a few specific topics, or you can send a letter covering the same information. Tax agents lodge through Online services for agents. Individuals and businesses with an ABN can lodge through Online services for business or Online services for individuals and sole traders. Individuals without an ABN can't lodge through the ATO's portals themselves, so they lodge by post or fax (or through a tax agent). If you lodge by post or fax, you must sign the application (ATO, Applying for a private ruling, last updated 8 October 2026).

A good application includes:

1. Precise questions. The ATO may answer only what you ask. A ruling that an asset is a CGT asset doesn't confirm that the CGT rules, rather than the ordinary income rules, apply to its sale (TR 2006/11 paras 6–7).
2. The full facts: parties, dates, steps, amounts and purpose, with copies of contracts, deeds, valuations and drafts.
3. Your technical analysis, which the ATO encourages where a tax professional applies (PS LA 2008/3 para 90).
4. Any earlier ruling on the matter. If you don't disclose an inconsistent earlier private or oral ruling, the later ruling is taken not to have been made (s 357-75(1), item 2). Different rules apply to GST and excise rulings (s 357-75(1B)).
5. Confidentiality points for the published edited version (PS LA 2008/4, section 4).

The ATO must ask for any further information it needs and may decline to rule if you don't provide it within a reasonable time (s 357-105). It must tell you about assumptions it proposes to make, or third-party information it will use, and let you respond (ss 357-110, 357-120), ordinarily within 28 days (PS LA 2008/3 paras 95, 97). Applying doesn't change your obligation to lodge on time or the ATO's power to assess (s 357-125).

How long does a private ruling take?

The ATO's current service commitment is to finalise 80% of private rulings within 28 calendar days of receiving all the necessary information. If a request raises particularly complex matters that will take longer, it aims to contact you within 14 days to negotiate a due date (ATO, Commitments to service, last updated 7 September 2026). Its practice statement adds that if information is missing from the application, it aims to contact you within 14 days of receiving it (PS LA 2008/3 para 130).

If the ATO hasn't ruled or declined within 60 days of your application (extended while it waits for information, your responses or a valuer), you can give written notice requiring it to rule (s 359-50(1), (2)).

If it still hasn't ruled or declined 30 days after your notice, you have 60 days to object against the failure to rule, lodging your own draft ruling with the objection (s 359-50(3), (4); TAA s 14ZW(1)(ba)). The ATO must then make your draft ruling or a different one (TAA s 14ZY(1A)). If it does neither within 60 days of the objection, the objection is taken to be disallowed, and your draft doesn't become the ruling (TAA s 14ZYB; TR 2006/11 para 57). If the ATO declines to rule, it must give written reasons (s 359-35(4)).

Are private rulings published?

Yes. The ATO publishes every private ruling on its Legal Database in edited form, with names and other identifying details removed, or in exceptional cases only a summary (PS LA 2008/4, updated 22 May 2025, sections 1 and 5). You receive the edited version with your ruling and generally have 28 days from the issue date to comment on privacy or confidentiality before it is published (section 6). Edited versions show how the ATO has ruled on similar facts, but no one can rely on them (section 2).

How do you object to a private ruling?

If you are dissatisfied with a private ruling that applies to you, you can object under Part IVC of the TAA (s 359-60(1), (2)), in the approved form and stating your grounds fully and in detail (TAA s 14ZU). See how to write an ATO objection.

You can't object if there is already an assessment for the income year or other period the ruling covers, if it relates to withholding tax already due and payable, or in certain excise cases (s 359-60(3)). In the first case, you object to the assessment instead (TR 2006/11 para 58A). For GST, lodging the GST return for a tax period counts as an assessment (s 155-15).

To challenge a ruling for an income year, object before that year's return is lodged and assessed. Once there is an assessment, you can no longer object to the ruling (s 359-60(3)(a)), and objecting doesn't extend the time to lodge or stop the ATO assessing (s 357-125).

Time limits for objecting to a private ruling

Objection or review	Time limit
Income tax private ruling	The later of 60 days after the ruling was made, and 2 years (most individuals and small and medium businesses) or 4 years (others) after the last day for lodging that year's return (TAA s 14ZW(1A))
GST or other indirect tax private ruling	The later of 60 days after the ruling was made and 4 years after the last day for lodging the related return (TAA s 14ZW(1AAC))
Fringe benefits tax private ruling	Treat as 60 days after you are given the ruling (TAA s 14ZW(1)(c)); see below

In each case, the right to object ends once there is an assessment for the period the ruling covers (s 359-60(3)(a)). For GST, that means once you lodge the GST return (usually your BAS) for that period.

An FBT ruling doesn't relate to an income year, so on the wording of the Act the better view is that the general limit applies: 60 days after you are given the ruling (TAA s 14ZW(1)(c)). The ATO's guidance says that for FBT rulings you have the later of 60 days and 4 years after the last day for lodging the relevant return (ATO, What you can object to, and the time limits, last updated 3 July 2026). We haven't found a basis for the 4 years in the Act, so treat 60 days as your deadline. If the 60 days have passed, object with a written request for more time (see below) and point to the ATO's guidance in support.

If you are out of time, you can lodge the objection with a written request that it be treated as on time, explaining the delay fully (TAA s 14ZW(2), (3)). A refusal can be reviewed by the Administrative Review Tribunal, or ART (TAA s 14ZX). There is no fixed deadline for that, but apply as soon as you can and, to be safe, within 28 days after you are given the refusal. See objection time limits and late objections.

How the objection is decided

The ATO may consider new information, but must tell you about any you don't have and let you respond (s 359-65(1), (2)). If it shows the scheme is materially different, the ATO must ask you to apply for a new ruling, and the objection is taken not to have been made (s 359-65(3)).

The scheme described in the ruling is generally taken as a given: later decision-makers form their own view of the law but don't find new facts (TR 2006/11 para 15A and the cases it cites). So get the facts right in the application.

If the objection is allowed, the ruling has effect as altered once the time for review or appeal passes (s 359-70). If it is disallowed, you can apply to the ART or appeal to the Federal Court within 60 days of being served with notice of the decision (TAA ss 14ZZ, 14ZZC, 14ZZN), and the ART can extend the time for an application to it (TAA s 14ZZC, note). You are generally limited to your objection grounds and must prove the ruling should not have been made or should have been made differently (TAA ss 14ZZK, 14ZZO). See challenging an objection decision in the ART and Federal Court.

After an objection to a ruling, any objection to the assessment on that matter is limited to grounds that weren't, and couldn't have been, raised against the ruling (TAA s 14ZVA). Put every ground in the first objection.

When should you apply for a private ruling?

Before a transaction is when a ruling is most useful. If the deal then changes materially, the ruling may not apply to what actually happened (TR 2006/11 para 36).

For a past transaction, if you apply within the period the ATO has to amend your assessment, it can amend to give effect to the ruling even after that period ends (Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 1936) s 170(6); for GST, Sch 1 s 155-50).

During an audit or objection, a ruling is usually the wrong tool. The ATO may decline to rule on a matter it is already considering for you, such as one under audit or objection (s 359-35(2)(b); TR 2006/11 para 39C), so the issue is generally resolved through the audit and any objection.

On Part IVA, the ATO says it generally won't rule on the general anti-avoidance rules where the scheme hasn't been carried out and the ruling would depend on assumptions, especially where the case isn't straightforward or there is a serious question whether an assumption will prove correct. It considers those rules whether or not you ask, and may tell you its view of the risk (TR 2006/11 paras 18A–18D; PS LA 2008/3 paras 100, 127). See Part IVA in ATO disputes.

A ruling is also usually the wrong step if you want a discretion exercised, such as remitting interest: ask for the decision itself (s 359-35(3); TR 2006/11 para 39D). And the ATO says it won't rule on whether a valuation method is acceptable (TR 2006/11 para 17A).

Next step

Send us the ruling and the application it answers (or, if you haven't applied, an outline of the transaction and its documents), the date of the ruling and the due date for that year's return. Include any ATO requests for information or proposed assumptions. In a first call we'll work out how much time you have and whether an objection, a fresh application or another approach makes more sense.