A taxpayer has been refused an extension of time to lodge objections as he would have little prospect of success.
See below for further details.
The Facts were these.
- The taxpayer’s duties required him to travel to, and stay overnight at, various locations in rural Queensland.
- He was paid a travel allowance for meal expenses, but he did not disclose those allowances or claim deductions for meal expenses in his income tax returns for the relevant years (2007-08 to 2017-18).
- However, in October 2020, he decided to lodge objections to the assessments for each year disclosing the allowances and claiming deductions.
- The amounts claimed were based on the “reasonable amounts” published by the ATO each year.
The taxpayer needed an extension of time to lodge the objections (which s14ZW(2)&(3) of the TAA53 permits), but the Commissioner has to agree that the extension is appropriate. The Commissioner did not agree and the taxpayer applied to the AAT to ‘review’ the Commission’s decision.
However, the AAT has agreed with the ATO not to grant the extension. What evidence the taxpayer produced (credit card statements for some of the more recent income years) showed that his meal expenses were less than the reasonable amounts published by the ATO. Accordingly, the taxpayer had little prospect of success if the extensions were granted.
[EDITORIAL COMMENT – I’m not sure what the benefit the Taxpayer sought to achieve, if both the income and the expense had been excluded from his tax return.]
Clark v CofT [2021] AATA 2446 (AAT, Olding SM, 22 July 2021.)
[LTN 28/7/21]