› Discharge without conviction under s 19B Crimes Act 1914 (Cth)
Taxes and Duties
› Administration of Federal Tax Legislation
› Penalties and Offences
› Failure to lodge return
› Absolute liability
Criminal Law
› Sentencing
› General deterrence
› Revenue offences
Criminal Law
› Appeal
› Adequacy of sentencing reasons
› Ex tempore remarks by magistrate
Quick Take
1Where a magistrate's ex tempore sentencing remarks, read as a whole, implicitly address the relevant considerations under s 19B(1)(b) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), the failure to expressly refer to each factor does not establish error; an appellate court will not too readily imagine error in the interstices of necessarily economic sentencing remarks.
2The fact that an offender's accountant bore responsibility for failing to lodge tax returns is not, without more, sufficient to make it inexpedient to record a conviction under s 19B, particularly given the absolute liability nature of s 8C(1)(a) of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth) and the importance of general deterrence in revenue offences.
3An appellate court will interfere with a magistrate's refusal to exercise the s 19B discretion only if satisfied the magistrate erred in sentencing principle, failed to have regard to a relevant consideration, had regard to an irrelevant consideration, or the decision was not reasonably open.
