The High Court refused the taxpayer’s application for special leave to appeal on Fri 10.5.2013. The taxpayer was seeking leave to appeal against the decision of the Full Federal Court in FCT v Greenhatch [2012] FCAFC 84. The Full Federal Court had unanimously upheld the Commissioner’s appeal and overturned a decision of the AAT and held that the assessable income of a beneficiary presently entitled to a discounted capital gain made by the trust was only the discounted proportion of the gain, and not the whole gain as originally decided by the AAT. It arrived at this decision, in effect, on the basis that s 97 of the ITAA 1936 drove the process of determining the beneficiary’s share of the net income of the trust (including a capital gain) to be included in their assessable income, and not Subdiv 115-C of the ITAA 1997.
[LTN 88, 10/5/13]