Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd v Konza

The appeal in Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd v Konza involved the validity of notices issued to ANZ by the Commissioner of Taxation under section 264 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth). The notices required ANZ to provide information from its digital database concerning customers of its affiliate in Vanuatu. The primary issues were whether the notices were authorised, whether compliance would breach foreign law, whether the notices were issued for a valid purpose, whether they were sufficiently clear, and whether they were invalid for an improper purpose. The court found that the notices were authorised and valid, but that the second notice was invalidated by uncertainty.

The court held that the evidentiary burden of proving that disclosure of information would breach a non-statutory obligation of confidence was not discharged by ANZ. The validity of the notices was not inhibited by foreign laws that prohibited disclosure of information in Australia. The notices were constrained only insofar as they must be for the purposes of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) and no improper purpose was demonstrated. However, the second notice was invalidated due to the uncertainty of the term "Officer" which permeated the whole of the notice. The court concluded that the invalidity could not be cured by severing the offending parts.

The court set aside the second notice and dismissed the appeal. The appellant was directed to file short minutes within seven days. If the parties could not agree on costs orders within seven days, the appellant had to file written submissions within a further seven days, not exceeding three pages. The respondents then had seven days to file their submissions, also not exceeding three pages.