The Appeal Panel of the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal has dismissed a taxpayer’s appeal and affirmed an earlier decision refusing the taxpayer’s claim for the primary production land tax exemption for the 2007 to 2010 land tax years.
In 2006, the taxpayer purchased a block of land from a farmer. The evident purpose of the taxpayer’s purchase of the land was to subdivide it and sell the subdivided residential lots. However, no sale took place and the farmer continued to conduct his cattle grazing activities on the land. The taxpayer claimed the land is exempt from land tax because it is used for primary production purposes. It was agreed by the parties that the land was “not rural” for the purposes of the exemption contained in s 10AA of the Land Tax Management Act 1956 (NSW).
The Appeal Panel rejected the taxpayer’s contentions that the Tribunal had erred by: (1) confining the meaning of “land” for the purposes of s 10AA to the particular land which fell subject to land tax; and (2) embracing non-physical, intangible uses of the land when discerning the “dominant use” of the land per s 10AA(3) of the Land Tax Management Act. Accordingly, the taxpayer’s appeal was dismissed.
(Ashleigh Developments Pty Ltd v Chief Comr of State Revenue (RD) [2012] NSWADTAP 25, NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal, Appeal Panel, O’Connor P, Verick JM, Butlin NJM, 16 July 2012.)
[LTN 140, 23/7]