Tax Avoidance and the Supreme Court – Waiting for Godot?
New Zealand Business Law Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3, September 2008
23 Pages Posted: 17 Feb 2010 Last revised: 25 Feb 2010
Date Written: September 1, 2008
Abstract
In 2007 the New Zealand Court of Appeal decided three significant cases concerning the application of the anti-avoidance provisions in the Income Tax Act and the Goods and Services Tax Act (the GST Act). These were Chelle Properties (NZ) Ltd v. Commissioner of Inland Revenue, Accent Management Ltd & Ors v. Commissioner of Inland Revenue, and Glenharrow Holdings Ltd v. Commissioner of Inland Revenue. In each case the Commissioner was successful in asserting that the taxpayer’s anticipated tax consequences should be overturned by the general anti-avoidance rules in either section 76 of the GST Act or in section BG 1 (the section reference is the same in both the 2004 and 2007 Income Tax Acts). This article considers the respective decisions, and seeks to anticipate the likely consequence and outcome of the resultant appeals to the Supreme Court.
Keywords: New Zealand, Tax avoidance, GAAR, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court
JEL Classification: K34
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation