The NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal has set aside a land tax assessment for the 2011 land tax year issued to a taxpayer after finding that the subject property was the taxpayer’s principal place of residence as at 30 December 2010.
The matter involved the taxpayer’s property in Byron Bay. The taxpayer also, at the time, owned another property in Sydney. The taxpayer submitted that he had purchased the Byron Bay property as his holiday home with the intention that it be his permanent home after retirement. It was not disputed that the taxpayer’s children (an adult son and teenage daughter studying for her HSC at the time) lived in the Sydney property and that that property was maintained for various reasons, including as a “base” for business purposes. The Tribunal heard the taxpayer had numerous business and other commitments requiring extensive travel. However, the taxpayer maintained that from May 2010, when he retired, his home was the Byron Bay property (although his case was presented on the basis that Byron Bay became his home in October 2010). The Commissioner submitted the Sydney property was the taxpayer’s PPR, but conceded the Byron Bay property was his PPR for the 2012 land tax year.
The Tribunal said the taxpayer’s “variegated and peripatetic lifestyle make this an unusual case”. The Tribunal considered the taxpayer’s occupancy of the properties, arrangements for the children and where taxpayer’s wife resided during the relevant period. The Tribunal also noted that the taxpayer had given instructions to his accountants to inform the NSW Office of State Revenue of his change in residence in October 2010. The Tribunal also noted a couple [of] factors that went against the taxpayer; however, overall, in light of the whole of the evidence, the Tribunal concluded that the taxpayer’s PPR on 31 December 2010 was the Byron Bay residence. Accordingly, it allowed the taxpayer’s claim for the PPR land tax exemption under Land Tax Management Act 1956 (NSW).
(Uechtritz v Chief Comr of State Revenue [2013] NSWADT 111, NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal, Walker JM, 22 May 2013.)
[LTN 99, 24/5]