Resource Capital is a decision of Pagone J, now on appeal, about the tax treatment of limited partnership profits1. One issue was whether the judge was bound by a superior court decision that the partnership in question was a legal entity2. Pagone J said (at [6]) that, while he was bound by precedent, there was no obligation to follow a case where a proposition of law had only been assumed rather than decided3. This is a principle well-known in the law. The difficulties come, as they often do, when disentangling its operation in practice. Because the appeal court had assumed the entity point, Pagone J was free to decide it for himself. iTip – always check that the proposition you are investigating has not simply been assumed.
Emma Robins – Tax Counsel Network
See here for the official PDF of interpretationNOW! Episode 34
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Footnotes:
Writers – Emma Robins, Gordon Brysland, Suna Rizalar & Ellis Rigby. Thanks to Andrew Maslaris (Treasury) & Robert Olding.
1 Resource Capital Fund IV LP v FCT [2018] FCA 41.
2 Resource Capital [2014] FCAFC 37 (at [8]).
3 Hetherington [1990] Ch 1 (at 9-10), Eddy [2005] HCA 64 (at [13]) quoted.