Ready Mixed Concrete (WA) Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation (Cth)

High Court of Australia Windeyer, J. Ready Mixed Concrete (WA) Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation (Cth)

ORDER Orders (Nos 88 and 89 of 1970) Appeals allowed in part. Assessments set aside. Matters remitted to the Commissioner to assess tax in accordance with this decision. Commissioner to pay two-thirds of the appellant's costs taxed on the basis that the two appeals were heard together. Usual order as to exhibits. This order to bear date 26 May 1971. Windeyer, J

These are two appeals brought pursuant to the Income Tax Assessment Act, s 187, from decisions of the Commissioner who disallowed objections to assessments of tax in respect of the years ended 30 June 1968 and 30 June 1969.

The appellant taxpayer had claimed to be entitled to a large deduction from its assessable income pursuant to s 62AA(5) of the Act. The amount in question is, I think, a fifth of about $580,000.

I heard the two appeals together as they depend upon the same question, although the facts raising that question differ in the two years.

At relevant times the appellant company — which I shall call the taxpayer — was, among other activities, engaged in remunerative undertakings of producing what was called aggregates, meaning quantities of small pieces of stone formed by breaking up large stones, the particles being all discrete, geologically homogeneous and more or less uniform in size and shape, the size and shape varying in different batches produced according to stipulated requirements.

The word aggregate has long been used in this way to describe material to be used as a component of concrete in building construction. The sizes of the aggregate produced and sold to buyers varied from what was called three inch size to one and a half inch size and down to three-quarters of an inch.