The AAT has held it has no power to stay the operation or implementation of the Commissioner’s objection decision which disallowed a trustee’s objection to the assessments issued to 2 minor beneficiaries of a trust. The beneficiaries of the trust are the trustee’s 2 daughters.
- On 11 March 2013, the Commissioner issued a notice of assessment to each of the trustee’s daughters in respect of income distributed to them under the trust.
- The trustee lodged an objection to each of the assessments on the basis that the income distributed to them was excepted income in that it had been derived from a worker’s compensation amount per s 102AE(2)(b)(ii) of the ITAA 1936.
- The Commissioner disallowed the objection on 27 May 2013 and the trustee applied for review of the reviewable objection decision disallowing his objections.
- The trustee also applied for a stay of the operation or implementation of the objection decision pending the Tribunal’s review of the decision under what the trustee described as the Tribunal’s “plenary powers” – the Tribunal understood this to mean under s 41 of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (the AAT Act).
The Tribunal noted the case raised for consideration “the apparent inconsistency between s 25(6) of the AAT Act and s 14ZZB(1) of the TAA”. It decided s 14ZZB(1) prevailed over s 26(5) of the AAT Act and that it had no power to stay the operation of implementation of the reviewable objection decision made by the Commissioner.
(AAT Case [2013] AATA 682, Re The Trustee For The Confidential Trust and FCT, AAT, Ref No: 2013/3721, Forgie DP, 24 September 2013.)
[LTN 189, 30/9/13]