The Federal Court has denied the Commissioner’s request for access to documents that are part of Family Law proceedings.
The case involved an appeal against an appealable objection decision under s 14ZZ of the Taxation Administration Act 1953. The applicant is International Litigation Partners Pte Ltd. In the course of the proceeding, the Court said the Commissioner sought leave to inspect all documents on a file provided to the Court by the Federal Circuit Court of Australia other than documents on that file relating to a child. The file in question is a Federal Circuit Court (Family Law Division) file between a man and his former wife, apparently involving their dispute concerning property and in respect of a child of their marriage. The Commissioner sought to access the file in order to determine whether International Litigation Partners was an Australian resident for tax purposes and whether it derived profits in Australia.
The Commissioner is not a party to the Family Law proceedings, and the Court considered that the utility in the Commissioner gaining access to the documents was outweighed by the public interest in confidentiality of Family Law proceedings.
(International Litigation Partners Pte Ltd v FCT [2014] FCA 671, Federal Court, Jagot J, 20 June 2014.)
[LTN 121, 26/6/14]