Today’s post considers the above-mentioned topic in a ‘vidcast’.
As usual, an edited transcript of the presentation for those that cannot (or choose not) to view it is below.
In terms of the timeline on the Cummins case, there was a long history here with no returns lodged. It’s going back literally decades. We’ve got a 1987 event where a house on Sydney Harbour goes into the wife’s name. No tax returns were lodged for many years in the lead up to 1987 transfer. In around the year 2000, he was about to retire. He was doing the work for a law firm and the law firm paid his bill, but short paid him to the extent of 48.5 cents. He wrote back and said hang on a second, i.e. I sent you a $100 bill, you only pay me $51.50, what's going on?
The law firm said, “Oh, Mr Cummins, (QC or whatever he was), yes, we will give you your other 48.5 cents when you give us an ABN.” Mr Cummins said, “What’s an ABN? They said you get that from the Tax Office.”
He rang the Tax Office and said, “I need one of these ABNs.” They said, “Okay, that’s fine. Give us your TFN and we'll give you an ABN.” Mr Cummins said, “What’s a TFN? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The suspicion is that at that point the Tax Office routed him back to the investigation division. By 2002, Cummins was in the middle of an audit because he hadn’t paid tax for decades. You do not need a tax file number if you never pay tax. That was what he had managed to do during his entire career.
Now if you get litigated against in 2002, four years from 2002 takes you back to about 1998. 1998 is a long, long way after 1987. The question was this. Was the Sydney Harbour property, which in the meantime had gone up in value quite significantly, exposed on Cummins going bankrupt?
Cummins’ argument you would guess was that no, outside the clawback period, I’m in the clear, yes, I’m bankrupt. But I don’t care about it because I don’t own anything in my name. What does it matter?
The court said no. The court said that you need to look at the main purpose that’s sitting around the 1987 transaction. The mere fact that the assessments had not actually issued back in 1987 when the transfer took place was held to be irrelevant.
The debt was still there. The fact that the tax debt hadn't crystallised, or Cummins didn’t actually know about it because the tax man hadn’t found him yet, was actually absolutely irrelevant. Cummins’ purpose at the time of moving the family home was to defeat creditors. Therefore, the whole transaction could be unwound because the 4-year limit only applies for transfers made when there are no known liabilities – if the liabilities (as here) are known, then the clawback period is unlimited.
As we understand it, it’s basically the only textbook of its kind in Australia that’s practically focused on how to deliver the asset protection piece. Very happy to give one of those away.
As always thanks to the Television Education Network for the video content here.
** for the trainspotters, the title here is riffed from the They Might be Giants song ‘Mr Klaw’.