The Supreme Court of the ACT held that where a taxpayer has exercised a right to seek administrative review of a Commissioner's decision made under a subsequently repealed provision, s 84 of the Legislation Act 2001 (ACT) preserves the operation of the repealed law for the purposes of that review — the right to have the decision reviewed is a substantive right, not a mere hope, distinguishing cases where only an administrative application was pending. On the construction of s 95 of the Duties Act 1999 (ACT), the Court upheld the Tribunal's finding that share transactions undertaken as part of a process to satisfy a lender's requirements were 'effected for the purpose of securing financial accommodation', even though the transactions did not themselves constitute a mortgage or direct security arrangement. On the s 82(5) discretion, the Court held it was not inequitable to deem a corporate beneficiary of a discretionary trust to own trust property where the share transactions conferred no practical or economic benefit on the taxpayers, who already exercised effective control over the trust assets through their directorships.
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