Corporate & Commercial

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Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Commercial disputes in the NSW, ACT and Federal courts, resolved early where that is possible and run properly where it is not.

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Legal Administration Assistant, Canberra

Canberra office, full time, on site.

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Wahlstation for German Referendare

Sydney or Canberra, open all year.

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The track record

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Latest, and longer form

Modern award coverage: what a high salary does not buy

Pathological arbitration clauses in Singapore

Auditor liability in Singapore and Australia

Guide: company constitutions

Guide: shareholder agreements

Germany

A German desk for businesses moving between Australia and the German-speaking market.

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Singapore

Singapore law where it governs the contract, and the arbitral seat that carries much of the region’s work.

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Vietnam

Market entry, supply arrangements and dispute resolution for Vietnam.

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Worth reading first

Vietnam arbitration

Defective arbitration clauses in Singapore

European privacy law for Australian business

Award coverage for German employers

COURT AND TRIBUNAL

Planet Red v Commissioner of ACT Revenue: two valuations set aside

22 March 2017

The Commissioner redetermined the unimproved value of our client’s blocks in the Sydney Building in Civic, which is what the rates assessed on them are calculated from. Our client objected, the Commissioner confirmed the valuations, and the matter went to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal for review.

The Tribunal set aside two of the three determinations and substituted lower values: Planet Red Pty Ltd v Commissioner of ACT Revenue [2017] ACAT 18. The Alinga Street blocks came down from the Commissioner’s $1,398,000 to $1,207,000, and a second parcel was set at $648,000. The third determination was confirmed.

The case turned on three things. How much of the building is actually heritage protected, which the Tribunal found to be the front facades, the colonnades and the surviving terracotta roof sections rather than the whole of it. Which comparable sales the valuers could properly work from. And the value of the improvements to be deducted, which the Tribunal took from a revised replacement cost and depreciated building by building.

The onus in a review of this kind sits with the taxpayer. As the Tribunal confirmed, discharging it does not require the taxpayer to prove that its own figure is the right one.

Read the judgment: AustLII

WHERE THIS SITS

Property Corporate and commercial

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