Simpson and Commissioner of Taxation (Taxation)

Simpson and the Commissioner of Taxation were the parties before Deputy President Forgie of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The dispute concerned an application by Simpson for an extension of time to lodge an objection against an assessment issued by the Commissioner. The assessment related to the taxation of a sale of property, which the Commissioner considered to be owned by a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) of which Simpson was a trustee.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether it had the discretion to grant an extension of time for Simpson to lodge his objection. This involved considering whether the property in question was indeed owned by an SMSF, and if not, whether the Tribunal could deem the existence of an SMSF for the purposes of the application. A further consideration was whether Simpson had any prospects of successfully challenging the Commissioner's assessment.

Deputy President Forgie reasoned that the Tribunal's power to extend time for lodging an objection is discretionary. However, this discretion is not unfettered and requires a consideration of the merits of the proposed objection. The Tribunal found that there was no evidence to support the existence of an SMSF in relation to the property. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that it had no power to deem the existence of an SMSF and that Simpson had no prospects of success in challenging the assessment.

The application for an extension of time was therefore refused.