Messenger Media and Information Technology Pty Ltd and Commissioner of Taxation (Taxation)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered a dispute between Messenger Media and Information Technology Pty Ltd (the Applicant) and the Commissioner of Taxation (the Respondent) concerning the Applicant's eligibility to claim input tax credits (ITCs) under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act. The Applicant sought to claim ITCs for the 2012 and 2013 tax periods, which were lodged significantly after the due dates for the relevant activity statements.

The primary legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the Applicant was within the time limits prescribed by section 105-55 of Schedule 1 to the *Taxation Administration Act 1953* (Cth) and Division 93 of the GST Act to claim ITCs for the 2012 and 2013 tax periods. If the claims were found to be within time, the Tribunal would then need to determine if the Applicant had established an entitlement to those ITCs under sections 11-5 and 29-10 of the GST Act.

The Tribunal reasoned that the Applicant's entitlement to claim ITCs for the 2013 tax period ceased on 3 June 2018, four years after the due date for lodging the GST return for that period. This conclusion was based on the clear and unequivocal operation of section 93-5 of the GST Act, which extinguishes the entitlement to ITCs after this four-year period, a principle affirmed in several previous AAT decisions. Similarly, for the 2012 tax period, the four-year time limit expired on 3 June 2017. While section 93-10(3) of the GST Act allowed for an extension if the entity notified the Respondent of its entitlement to ITCs giving rise to a refund within four years of the end of the tax period, the Applicant lodged its activity statements for both periods on 4 February 2019, well after these time limits had expired. The Tribunal found it had no discretion to extend these statutory time limits.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the Respondent's reviewable decision dated 19 December 2019. The Applicant had failed to discharge its burden of proving that the Respondent's GST assessments were excessive or what they otherwise should be, primarily due to the expiry of the time limits for claiming the ITCs.