The District Court of WA has dismissed a taxpayer’s appeal concerning a default judgment by a Deputy Commissioner for over id=”mce_marker”64,000 that was entered in March 2007 in default of the taxpayer filing an appearance. The matter concerned a director’s penalty notice (DPN).
The taxpayer argued the default judgment should be set aside because he had an arguable defence to the DCT’s claim. He asserted that as a director of a company that was the subject of a DPN, he had appointed an administrator prior to the end of the relevant 14-day period thereby remitting the penalty under s 222AOG of the ITAA 1936.
The DCT argued the administrator was not appointed prior to the end of the relevant 14-day period. The Deputy Commissioner submitted there was no arguable defence to the claim nor was there a reasonable explanation for the significant delay of 5 years and 8 months in making the application to set aside the default judgment.
After reviewing the matter, the Court said there was “no credible defence on the merits” and dismissed the appeal.
(DCT v Healy [2014] WADC 35, WA District Court, Wager DCJ, 21 March 2014.)
[LTN 61, 31/3/14]