Vale Press Pty Limited v The Deputy Commissioner of Taxation

Vale Press Pty Limited sought special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia against a decision of the Full Court. The dispute concerned the assessment of sales tax on goods manufactured by Vale Press.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether section 18(1)(b) of the Sales Tax Assessment Act was sufficiently certain in concept to be applied to a manufacturer, such as Vale Press, that produced goods to the specific order of a customer (job order manufacturing). Vale Press argued that this section, which required the determination of the amount for which the goods could reasonably be expected to have been sold by the manufacturer by retail, was defective and incapable of ascertainment in such circumstances.

Vale Press contended that the legislation contemplated a distribution regime involving a manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer, and that section 18(1)(b) sought to impose a hypothetical retail sale value where a manufacturer sold directly. However, for job order manufacturers, where goods were sold or agreed to be sold before production, and were unique to the customer (like custom-made dentures or ships), there was no existing wholesale market. Consequently, determining a hypothetical retail sale value was considered a guess and incapable of objective ascertainment. The Court considered whether a notional retail market could exist even for bespoke items.