Fleet Repairs & Maintenance Pty Ltd v Chief Commissioner of State Revenue
[2020] NSWCATAP 264
At a glance
Source factsCourt
NCAT Appeal Panel
Decision date
2020-10-16
Before
Bathurst CJ
Source
Original judgment source is linked above.
Judgment (16 paragraphs)
Liability for payroll tax
- Employers must pay payroll tax to the NSW government on taxable wages paid by the employer for work relating to a relevant contract: Payroll Tax Act 2007 (NSW), s 6, 7, 13(1)(e), 32 and 35. Fleet Repairs & Maintenance Pty Ltd was nominated to pay tax on behalf of all group members including Transtar Linehaul Pty Ltd.
- Transtar carried on business as a road freight transport business and paid RJK Logistic Solutions Pty Ltd taxable wages (about $100,000 a year) for work relating to a contract. The contract was for RJK's director, Mr Keel, to "provide management services, as directed, to further develop the business prospects of Transtar." Under the contract: The main areas will be the provision of Business Development Services, including increasing revenue, better utilisation of current assets and broadening the client base. Other services may be provided upon request. All of these services may be provided to several companies as directed by Transtar.
- There was no requirement in the contract for Mr Keel to provide services for the conveyance of goods by means of a vehicle provided by him.
- Fleet Repairs, as Transtar's nominee, is not liable for payroll tax on the money paid to Mr Keel if the contract with Transtar is not a "relevant contract": Payroll Tax Act, s 12(1)(e) and 32. The contract will not be a relevant contract if, under the contract, Transtar "is supplied with services solely for or ancillary to the conveyance of goods by means of a vehicle provided by the person conveying them." We will call this exemption the "conveyance of goods exemption." Nor will the contract be a relevant contract if the services supplied under the contract "are of a kind ordinarily required by (Transtar) for less than 180 days in a financial year." We will call this exemption the "less than 180 days exemption": Payroll Tax Act, s 32(2)(d) and s 32(2)(b)(ii).
- The legislative history provides some background as to the reason for these exemptions. In Chief Commissioner of State Revenue v Downer EDE Engineering Pty ltd [2020] NSWCA 126, Bathurst CJ explained at [113], that: The Explanatory Note to the Bill which introduced the legislation stated that the terms of the definition of "relevant contract" "are directed to capture several means of disguising the employer-employee relationship by contractual arrangements which have been increasingly resorted to in recent years by persons seeking to defeat the objects of the Principal Act. The definition contains appropriate exclusions, so that the parties to genuine service contracts will not be prejudiced.