Richard Albarran, Brent Kijurina and Cameron Shaw as Joint Administrators of Cooper & Oxley Builders Pty Ltd as trustee for the Cooper & Oxley Builders Unit Trust and Commissioner of Taxation (Taxation)

This matter came before R J Olding SM concerning a dispute between Richard Albarran, Brent Kijurina and Cameron Shaw, in their capacities as joint administrators of Cooper & Oxley Builders Pty Ltd (as trustee for the Cooper & Oxley Builders Unit Trust) (the Company), and the Commissioner of Taxation. The core of the dispute revolved around the administrators' entitlement to input tax credits (ITCs) for acquisitions made by the Company while it was under administration, where the consideration for those acquisitions was provided by the administrators.

The court was required to determine whether the administrators, as representatives of an "incapacitated entity" (the Company), were entitled to claim ITCs for acquisitions made by the Company, even though the administrators provided the consideration for those acquisitions. This involved interpreting the provisions of the Goods and Services Tax Act 1999 (Cth) (the GST Act), particularly sections relating to the entitlement to and attribution of ITCs, and the special rules applicable to incapacitated entities and their representatives.

The court reasoned that the general rule under section 11-20 of the GST Act is that the entity that makes an acquisition is entitled to the ITC. While the administrators were acting as agents for the Company and had control over its affairs, the court found that the relevant acquisitions were made by the Company itself, not by the administrators in their personal capacity. The court interpreted section 58-10 of the GST Act as applying only to supplies and acquisitions made by the representative in their own capacity, within the scope of their appointment, and not to pre-appointment transactions or those made by the incapacitated entity. Consequently, the administrators were not entitled to the ITCs because they did not make the acquisitions to which they related.

The objection decision of the Commissioner was affirmed, meaning the administrators were not entitled to the contested input tax credits.