The Victorian Supreme Court has granted 11 taxpayers leave to appeal (and thereby treated the application as an appeal) on a limited basis from the orders of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The Tribunal had affirmed the decisions of the Commissioner to disallow the taxpayers’ objections to assessments of land tax and duty.
The land tax assessments were made on the basis that the grouping provisions of s 44 of the Land Tax Act 1958 (Vic) and the s 47 of the Land Tax Act 2005 (Vic) applied. The Commissioner jointly assessed the taxpayers with other corporations that were “related” within the meaning of s 44 of the LTA 1958 and s 47 of the LTA 2005. The taxpayers had claimed before the Tribunal to be trustee companies representing 67 trusts.
The Supreme Court considered 5 legal propositions contended by the taxpayers. The Court granted leave to appeal on 1 proposition (the 4th proposition) which concerned whether the Tribunal had erred in affirming the Commissioner’s assessments made under the LTA 1958, despite finding that the Commissioner had failed to make a “determination” under s 44(3) of the LTA 1958. The Supreme Court said the question of law here was whether the making of a determination under s 44(3) is a criterion of tax liability. The Court remitted to the Tribunal the question of whether s 44(3) determinations were made.
In relation to the 5th proposition, the Court noted that it was common ground that the Tribunal had failed to consider the consequences of 3 trusts that were established on the evidence. It therefore remitted the matter to the Tribunal.
(Aston (Aust) Properties Pty Ltd & Ors v Comr of State Revenue [2012] VSC 518, Victorian Supreme Court, Davies J, 31 October 2012.)
[LTN 223, 16/11]