Cancellation of an ABN - Bona Fides of Applicant

Phillip Sweeney made this Freedom of Information request to Australian Taxation Office

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

Waiting for an internal review by Australian Taxation Office of their handling of this request.

Phillip Sweeney

Dear Australian Taxation Office,

I am lodging a request for documents pursuant the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

Background to this FOI Request.

The High Court of Australia in Finch v Telstra Super Pty Ltd [2010] HCA 36 stated at [35]:
"The government considers that the taxation advantages of superannuation should not be enjoyed unless superannuation funds are operated efficiently and lawfully".

One of the oldest superannuation funds in Australia has ABN 60 171 679 448.

This superannuation trust was established in South Australia on the 23 December 1913. It is a provision of the Trustee Act 1936 (SA) that trustees of trusts established in South Australia must be resident in South Australia.

The terms of this occupational pension trust were amended by an enactment of the Parliament of South Australia.

Therefore if there was any reason to cancel the ABN of this superannuation trust, the ATO should have been advised by a Trustee or Trustees resident in South Australia.

Instead the ATO was advised to cancel the ABN by a purported Trustee, CCSL Limited, resident in Victoria.

The Documents I Seek.

I seek copies of the following documents:
(i) Copies of any correspondence from the ATO to the purported Trustee, CCSL Limited, seeking to establish the bona fides of CCSL Limited, to be the lawfully appointed Trustee of the superannuation trust which has the ABN 60 171 679 48.
(ii) Copies of any correspondence from the purported Trustee CCSL Limited, providing copies of Deeds from the trust, confirming that CCSL limited had been lawfully appointed to the office of trustee in accordance with the terms an occupational pension trust established on the 23 December 1913 in the state of South Australia as properly construed, and
(iii) a copy of any explanation from CCSL Ltd as to why its registered office is in Victoria, when it is a provision of the Trustee Act 1936 (SA) that a Trustee of a trust established in South Australia must be resident in South Australia.

Copies of genuine Deeds of this fund and evidence sourced from the Parliament of South Australia can be found on the FOI Disclosure Log of the Australian Crime Commission. The fund was once known as The Provident Fund.

These genuine Deeds have been criminally concealed from the members and beneficiaries by CCSL Limited, which contravenes the ruling of the High court of Australia with respect to taxation advantages claimed by the purported Trustee, CCSL Limited.

Legally there should still be five natural person trustee resident in South Australia as the lawfully appointed Trustees of this fund.

The purported corporate Trustee, CCSL Limited, resident in Victoria is a Trustee de son tort.

Yours faithfully,

Phillip Sweeney

FOI, Australian Taxation Office

Dear Mr Sweeney,

Thank you for your email to the FOI mailbox. We will consider your request and respond as soon as possible. FOI requests are required to be processed within 30 days from the date we receive an application. While we aim to achieve this timeframe, certain requests that are large or involve complex issues may take longer. If this is the case we will contact you to discuss when the material can be made available. Further, unless your request is for personal information, charges may apply depending on the size and complexity of your case. We will notify you if there are charges and what those charges will be. We will obtain your consent to any additional charges before processing the request.

Regards,

FOI | General Counsel
Australian Taxation Office

ATO | Working for all Australians

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Galeotti, Julie, Australian Taxation Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Sweeney,

Please find enclosed my decision regarding your Freedom of Information request sent on 9 February 2015 at 9.16 am.

Regards,

Julie Galeotti
Senior Legal Officer
General Counsel
Australian Taxation Office
Phone: 03 9285 1810 | Facsimile: 03 9285 1702
Email [email address]

ATO | Working for all Australians

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Phillip Sweeney

Dear Australian Taxation Office,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Australian Taxation Office's handling of my FOI request 'Cancellation of an ABN - Bona Fides of Applicant'.

I refer to the comments of the High Court of Australia in The High Court of Australia in Finch v Telstra Super Pty Ltd [2010] HCA 36 Finch stated at [35]:

“The government considers that the taxation advantages of superannuation should not be enjoyed unless superannuation funds are operating efficiently and lawfully.”

The information I have requested does not relate to any particular Tax Return of the entity in question.

I am not seeking an financial information related to this entity.

My FOI request relates to a purely administrative matter which relates to the cancellation of an ABN.

I am a member of the superannuation fund in question and the purported Trustee has not provided a satisfactory explanation as to why the ABN has been cancelled.

I believe this to be prime facie evidence of a tax avoidance scheme on the part of the purported Trustee that has refused to provide any evidence to the members of the fund as to whether the purported trustee was lawfully appointed to the office of trustee.

The law requires an equal number of member-elected Directors, however the last member-elected Director resigned in 2011 and there have been no replacements to protect the interests of the members of this fund.{The law requires vacancies to be filled within 90 days}.

Again I emphasise my FOI request is of an administrative nature and I am not seeking confidential information associated with the entities tax returns or tax obligations.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/c...

Yours faithfully,

Phillip Sweeney