Pape v Commissioner of Taxation
| Pape v Commissioner of Taxation | |
|---|---|
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| Court | High Court of Australia |
| Full case name | Pape v The Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia & The Commonwealth of Australia |
| Decided | 3 April 2009 decision announced; 7 July 2009 reasons published |
| Citation(s) | [2009] HCA 23, (2009) 238 CLR 1 |
| Transcript(s) | 13 Mar [2009] HCATrans 54 (application for referral of special case); 30 Mar [2009] HCATrans 59 31 Mar [2009] HCATrans 60 1 Apr [2009] HCATrans 61 |
| Case history | |
| Prior action(s) | none |
| Subsequent action(s) | none |
| Case opinions | |
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| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | French CJ, Gummow, Hayne, Heydon, Crennan, Kiefel and Bell JJ |
Pape v Commissioner of Taxation is an Australian court case concerning the constitutional validity of the Tax Bonus for Working Australians Act (No 2) 2009 (Cth) which seeks to give one-off payments of up to $900 to Australian taxpayers. The decision of the High Court of Australia was announced on 3 April 2009, with reasons to follow later.
The plaintiff in the case, Bryan Pape, was a law lecturer and barrister who represented himself before the Court. He challenged the legislation on the ground that the payments, said to be a tax bonus, were actually a gift and were not supported by the taxation power in the Constitution. The Commonwealth argued that the legislation was supported by all or any combination of the appropriations "power" under s 81 of the Constitution, the taxation power (s 51(ii)), the external affairs power (s 51(xxix)), the trade or commerce power (s 51(i)) and the implied nationhood power.
The Court by a margin of 4-3, Chief Justice French presiding, found that the Act was a valid law of the Commonwealth supported by a head of legislative power under the Constitution.
On 18 February 2009, the Parliament of Australia passed two Acts: the Tax Bonus for Working Australians Act (No 2) 2009 and the Tax Bonus for Working Australians (Consequential Amendments) Act (No 2) 2009. The two Acts formed part of the Rudd Government's economic stimulus package in response to the 2008-09 global financial crisis. The principal operation of the Acts was to pay "tax bonuses" of between $250 and $900 to Australians whose taxable incomes were no more than $100,000 in the 2007-08 financial year. The Acts required the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to pay the tax bonuses as soon as practicable after the Acts commenced.
Bryan Reginald Pape was a lecturer in Law at the University of New England and a former officer of the conservative National Party of Australia.
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