Tax & ATO News Australia

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High Court Case helps determine questions of facts vs. questions of law in AAT hearings

The ATO has recently released a decision impact statement on a High Court tax case that SMH Tax Lawyers won last year, Commissioner of Taxation v Crown Insurance Limited.

The ATO concluded that this case has no precedential value and is confined to its facts (which begs the question as to why they wasted tax payers money and that of our client pursuing the matter through to the High Court and losing), but we respectfully disagree.

Quite aside from clarifying issues regarding the source of overseas income, this case was very important in helping to determine what matters are questions of facts (and therefore not able to be appealed to the Federal Court after an Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision) and what are questions of law (and therefore can be appealed).

This question is at the heart of very many appeals from the AAT.

It also emphasises how important it is to present the facts in a clear, concise and compelling matter in AAT hearings. If you do not get the facts right in AAT hearings (which the vast majority of taxpayers do not), then your chances of losing are very high and your chances of successfully appealing are negligible.

At SMH Tax Lawyers one of our most critical specialist roles is helping our clients present the facts properly. This is something we are uniquely placed to assist with as lawyers with specialist litigation and tax experience and the resources to work with our clients in forensically examining complicated facts which can cover many years, and often many countries.

With this assistance, our clients have achieved highly successful results in tax litigation matters against the ATO.

Posted in: Tax & ATO News Australia at 24 January 14