Wangaratta Woollen Mills Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation (Cth) [1969] HCA 39

High Court of Australia McTiernan J. Wangaratta Woollen Mills Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation (Cth) [1969] HCA 39

ORDER It is ordered that the assessment be remitted to the Commissioner in order to be amended in accordance with this judgment and that the respondent pay three-fourths of the costs of the proceedings.

Cur. adv. vult.

Sept. 4 McTiernan J. delivered the following written judgment:—

This is an appeal by the taxpayer Wangaratta Woollen Mills Limited against an assessment issued to the appellant in respect of income derived during the year of income ending on 31st May 1968. The appellant pursuant to s. 187 (b) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936-1968 Cth requested that its objection be treated as an appeal and it is in this form that the case came before this Court.

The first ground of objection on which the appellant relied in this Court was that a deduction for depreciation was allowable under the provisions of s. 54 of the Act on certain parts of buildings and equipment in that they were items of plant which are owned and used by the company in carrying on a business for the gaining or production of assessable income. The items in question constituted what counsel for the Commissioner called the "basic building structure" of a new dyehouse built by the appellant during the year of income ending 31st May 1961, and extended during the years of income ending 31st May 1968.

The second ground of objection upon which the appellant relied in this Court was that a deduction under the provisions of s. 62AA of the Act was allowable in respect of the dyehouse extension, a pit with drain channels and grills, demountable walls, pistons and springs for sliver cans, and modifications to what is known as a Fulscope controller, as being units of plant purchased new and used in the year of income in the process of manufacture.