FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
1987 No. 198
Subsection 60(1) of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing the fees to be paid in respect of proceedings in the Court or the service or execution of the process of the Court by officers of the Court.
The Federal Court of Australia Regulations (‘the Regulations’) prescribe the fees payable, inter alia, in respect of proceedings in the Court.
Subregulation 2(2) of the Regulations lists certain matters for which a fee is not payable under the Regulations.
The Regulation amends subregulation 2(2) of the Regulations to exempt the Commissioner of Taxation (‘the Commissioner’) from the payment of a fee for the filing of a document relating to the referral to the Court by the Commissioner of an objection decision as defined in section 14ZAB of the Taxation Administration Act 1953.
Under various taxation Acts, including the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936. a person who is dissatisfied with a decision of the Commissioner may lodge an objection. The Commissioner is required to consider the objection. If he disallows it, the person objecting (‘the objector’) may request the Commissioner to refer the decision on the objection (‘the objection decision’) to the Federal Court for review. When the referral is so made by the Commissioner, it constitutes the instituting by the objector concerned of an appeal against the objection decision.
The Regulation makes it clear that the Commissioner is not required to pay a fee on filing the relevant documents relating to the referral in the Court.
Under the Taxation Administration Act the objector is required to pay a fee to the Commissioner (which is to be the same as that applicable to the filing of originating process in the Court and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal) when requesting the Commissioner to refer the objection decision to the Court for review.
The payment by the Commissioner of a fee under the Regulations and the payment of a fee to the Commissioner by the objector under the Taxation Administration Act could have resulted, if the Commissioner were successful in the appeal, in the objector being liable to a double fee. This was not intended.
The Regulation brings the Regulations into line with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Regulations which contain an exemption from filing fees where the Commissioner refers an appeal to the Tribunal at the request of the objector.
Authorised by the Parliamentary Secretary for Justice and Member of the Executive Council