3.1 Currently, the practice of the two main commercial tax publishers, CCH and Thomson ATP, is to incorporate repealed provisions as history notes in their published print volumes. Repealed provisions are retained in these volumes for a number of years (the period varying between the two publishers).
3.2 While history notes are published in a smaller font size than the operative law, they nevertheless occupy a substantial amount of space in the published volumes. There would be little savings in the volume of published legislation if the identified inoperative provisions were repealed but the publishers retained them, albeit in smaller font size, as part of their annually published volumes.
3.3 The Board consulted with CCH and Thomson ATP in the course of the project. They are very supportive of the work undertaken to identify the inoperative provisions and the idea of repealing them. They have advised that they would locate repealed provisions in a separate, less frequently published hard copy or on-line archive volume, thus realising substantial savings in the volume of annually published legislation.
3.4 The publishers are considering how frequently they would publish an archive volume. This would be a matter for commercial decision but options could include the annual publication of a hard copy archive volume, the first containing the results of the current project and subsequent volumes containing only the history notes (including any newly repealed provisions) generated in that year. It could also be decided to consolidate the annual volumes say every 4 or 5 years.
- The publishers’ electronic volumes would continue to be updated within a short time of any legislative change.
3.5 The Board notes that the tax publishers — including those not consulted to date — will have an interest in the content and timing of any draft repeal Bill.