The Federal Court has denied a company’s request to the ATO under the FOI Act for information concerning unclaimed superannuation.
The taxpayer helps clients to retrieve unclaimed superannuation from accounts where the superannuation fund cannot identify the person entitled to the account. The Commissioner maintains a register containing particulars of unclaimed money paid by superannuation providers to the Commissioner. The taxpayer applied to the Commissioner for access to “…the name and address of each person listed on the ‘Provider (superfund) enquiry register’, together with the amount of unclaimed money in respect of each of them; and the name and address of each person listed on the ‘Super (on line) register’ together with the amount of unclaimed money in respect of each of them”. The Commissioner refused this request on the basis that the document requested did not exist within the meaning of s 24A(b)(ii) of the FOI Act.
The Court said it would have been necessary for the ATO to write a new computer program for it to comply with the taxpayer’s request. It said the documents requested were not capable of being produced by the ATO by the use of a computer, being a use that is ordinarily available to the ATO for retrieving and collating stored information. The Court dismissed the taxpayer’s appeal.
(Collection Point Pty Ltd v FCT [2012] FCA 720, Federal Court, Marshall J, 10 July 2012.)
[LTN 132, 11/7]