The High Court has granted Special Leave for the Commissioner and the Bamford’s to pursue their respective appeals to the High Court from the full Federal Court decision.
Having considered the parties written submissions, in a 5 minute hearing on 3 November 2009, the Court focussed on whether leave should be granted on all grounds.
The Commissioner argued that:
- the Court should hear both the Commissioner’s and taxpayers’ appeals as they were interrelated, and
- granting special leave on all grounds will allow the court to consider:
- the meaning of “present entitlement”, “share” and “net income of the trust estate” in section 97 of the ITAA 1936, and
- Net income vs Distributable income (and where “capital gains” fits in these concepts).
The Court acknowledged the interrelationship of all issues raised by the respective parties warranted granting leave to appeal on all grounds.
The game is now on, as we await the players to appear before the main umpire in a long-awaited centre court match which will hopefully bring certainty in a significant area of taxation law. Ironically, with the legislature sitting on the side-line, if the match goes against the Commissioner, one cannot rule out an appeal to the lines personnel to override the main umpire.
In order to refresh your memory of the case <click here>
This edition of ‘The Assessment’ was prepared by Andrew Orange. If you have any comments or queries please feel free to contact Andrew at andrewo@webbmartinconsulting.com.au.
