The WA State Administrative Tribunal has found that the Commissioner of State Revenue (WA) was correct to remit penalty tax to 2.5% of the primary tax liability imposed on a taxpayer for lodging an instrument 1 month and 2 days late.
In 2010, the taxpayer entered into a contract to purchase a lease of Crown land. That contract was conditional on obtaining a consent from the WA Minister of Transport to the assignment of the lease. The taxpayer submitted the contract [for stamping]; however, the Commissioner applied penalty tax for late lodgment, remitted to 2.5% of the amount of the duty paid. The taxpayer submitted the contract was lodged within time as liability for duty arose on the date the Minister gave consent. Alternatively, the taxpayer argued the penalty should be further remitted to 1.25% as it had made every effort to assist the Commissioner with making the assessment and the instrument was only late by 1 month and 2 days.
The Tribunal held the contract should have been lodged within 12 months after the date of its signing. It also held that the penalty tax was appropriately remitted per the Commissioner’s policy contained in Commissioner’s Practice TAA 18.2, which provided a remission of penalty tax to 2.5% for instruments lodged [between 1 and] 4 months late. It did not accept the taxpayer’s argument to allow “some days of grace” for the lower 1.25% penalty for lodgments made 1 month late.
(Motor Yacht Marine Holdings Pty Ltd v Comr of State Revenue [2013] WASAT 52, WA State Administrative Tribunal, Sharp DP, 23 April 2013.)
[LTN 83, 3/5/13]