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This week's opinion

08 September 2015 / Andrew Hubbard
Issue: 4517 / Categories: Comment & Analysis

For good or bad, change is coming.

I have discussed special relief which replaced equitable liability before. It is right that there is a mechanism to prevent the collection of tax where in the words of the legislation it would be “unconscionable” to enforce payment. That is a deliberately high hurdle which was intended to operate only in wholly deserving cases. It was never meant to be a “get out of jail” free card for people who had simply ignored their tax obligations. However the recently reported decision of JR Scott v CRC has produced precisely that result.
 
According to the facts as presented (I have no inside knowledge) the taxpayer’s attention to his tax affairs was far from scrupulous. Yet he was granted the special relief: determinations that had been issued were replaced by more accurate figures even though the time limit had...

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