The AAT has held that it does not have the jurisdiction to consider applications lodged on behalf of taxpayer trusts relating to assessments of GST and associated penalties on the basis that the Commissioner had not yet made a reviewable objection decision.

The taxpayers were 2 associated trusts that had been audited by the ATO over BASs and revised BASs relating to various quarterly tax periods between 1 January 2010 and 31 March 2012. The Commissioner then issued notices of assessments to the 2 trusts for various periods and a penalty notice for recklessness in relation to one of the trusts for a GST shortfall amount.

The taxpayers lodged notices of objection with the Commissioner who, after initially saying they were invalid, eventually accepted the correspondence as a valid objection. The taxpayers then applied to the Tribunal for a review of the objection decisions. They contend that the Commissioner made a reviewable objection decision based on various documents and correspondence from the Commissioner including letters of acknowledgement, emails setting out chronology of events, and letters from the ATO regarding the validity of the objection decisions lodged.

The AAT said it only has jurisdiction to review an objection decision if the Commissioner has made a reviewable objection decision. It said the documents and correspondence from the Commissioner could not be regarded as a decision on any objection and were therefore not a reviewable objection decision. The Tribunal said the Commissioner had not made, and had not been deemed to have made, reviewable objection decisions in relation to the taxation objections. Therefore, it held it did not have jurisdiction to review the applications.

(AAT Case [2013] AATA 253, Re The Trustee for Oenoviva (Australia and New Zealand) Plant and Equipment Trust & Anor and FCT, AAT, Ref No 2013/0848 and 0910, Forgie DP, 26 April 2013.)

[LTN 80, 30/4/13]