Commonwealth Numbered Acts

SOCIAL SECURITY LEGISLATION AMENDMENT ACT (No. 3) 1991 No. 175, 1991 - SECT 99

99. After section 1121 of the Principal Act the following section is inserted:
Effect of certain liabilities on value of assets used in primary production
"1121A. (1) For the purposes of working out the value of a person's assets
under this Act, if:

   (a)  the person is:

   (i)  a primary producer; or

   (ii) a family member of a primary producer; and

   (b)  the person has assets (including real property) that are, in the
        Secretary's opinion, used for the purposes of carrying on that primary
        production; and

   (c)  the person also has liabilities that are, in the Secretary's opinion,
        related to the carrying on of the primary production; then:

   (d)  section 1121 does not apply in relation to the assets referred to in
        paragraph (b); and

   (e)  those assets are taken to be a single asset (in this section called
        the `primary production asset'); and

   (f)  the value of that single asset is worked out under subsection (2).
Note: for `family member' see subsection 23 (1).

"(2) The value of a person's primary production asset is worked out in the
following way:
Method statement Step 1. Add together the value of the assets referred to in
paragraph

(1) (b): the result is called the unencumbered value. Step 2. Add together the
value of the liabilities referred to in
paragraph (1) (c): the result is called the total liability. Step 3. Take the
total liability away from the unencumbered
value: the result is the value of the person's primary
production asset.

"(3) If the result under Step 3 of the Method statement is less than nil, the
value of the primary production asset is taken to be nil.".