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Key decisions

  • Commissioner of Taxation & Darling and Anor (2014) FLC 93-583
  • Edwards & Peters and Anor (2014) FLC 93-580
  • Redmond & Redmond and Anor [2014] FamCAFC 55
  • Bartsch & Redman (2014) FLC 93-584
  • Farmer & Panshin (2014) FLC 93-587
  • Marsh & Marsh (2014) FLC 93-576

Commissioner of Taxation & Darling and Anor (2014) FLC 93-583

The Commissioner of Taxation has successfully appealed an order that allows the Commissioner to be released from the implied obligation not to make use of documents obtained from a Family Court file. In this judgment, the Commissioner obtained documents from Mr and Mrs Darling’s Family Court file by attending at the registry and accessing and copying documents. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) sought to use the documents in a tax audit of the husband’s financial affairs. In a ground-breaking judgment, the Full Court allowed the appeal because of the importance of the public duty that the ATO is performing, some of the information was available only to the ATO via the documents contained on the Family Court file and the documents would not venture into the public arena. The full bench did warn the ATO that coercive power in obtaining access to the documents should not have been used and that notice should have been given to the parties.

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