The WA Commissioner of State Revenue has been unsuccessful before the WA Supreme Court in appealing against an earlier decision which had allowed a retired couple’s claim for the principal place of residence (PPR) exemption despite their home being leased out for a short-term period.
In 2011, the retired couple went on an extended holiday living in a caravan on their own caravan park site. While they were away from early June to early September 2011, they rented out their fully furnished home mainly for security reasons. The Commissioner issued a land tax assessment in respect of the home, but allowed a residential exemption for the caravan park site.
The WA Supreme Court held it was open for the State Administrative Tribunal to have found that the home was the retired couple’s principal residence as at the relevant date (ie 30 June 2011), and therefore not subject to land tax. Accordingly, the appeal was dismissed.
(Comr of State Revenue v Burdinat & Anor [2012] WASC 359, WA Supreme Court, McKechnie J, 25 September 2012.)
[LTN 217, 8/11]