The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has announced a ruling which exempts radio prizes from the GST.

Commercial Radio Australia CEO Joan Warner welcomed the ruling. “This is good news for the commercial radio industry and is a fair and commonsense ruling from the ATO,” said Warner.

“The radio industry has consistently argued that radio prizes be exempt. The original draft ruling would have meant products given away as part of radio contests or giveaways could have been treated by the ATO as supplies and therefore would have been subject to GST. This would have resulted in a significant and unfair cost for radio stations and their listeners.”

“Given that 95 per cent of Australians listen to radio every day the entire community would have been affected in its use of its favorite electronic medium. So today’s exempt ruling is good news for commercial radio and the listening public,” said Warner.