The Australian Financial Review reports that in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the agribusiness schemes, the ATO confirmed it is close to issuing a draft ruling on the tax consequences for investors who lost money in the recent collapse of Timbercorp and Great Southern.

The ATO revealed in the submission that it is investigating whether the promoter penalty laws have been breached in several cases relating to MIS arrangements, including the marketing of the big schemes.

The laws were introduced in 2006 to deter the promotion of tax rorts and carry penalties of heavy fines for individuals or companies found to have received commissions for marketing tax exploitation rackets.

"These cases include some smaller scale MIS arrangements and financing arrangements involving on-sellers of some larger MIS arrangements," said the ATO submission to parliament's joint committee on corporations and financial services.