Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (NSW) v Zest Manufacturing Co Pty Ltd [1949] HCA 61

High Court of Australia Latham C.J. Rich, Dixon, McTiernan, Williams and Webb JJ. Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (NSW) v Zest Manufacturing Co Pty Ltd [1949] HCA 61

ORDER Question in case answered—No. Judgment for plaintiff for £106 5s. 3d. with costs including costs of case.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Dec. 12 Latham C.J.

The question which arises upon this case stated is whether certain foods for fish are exempt from sales tax under a provision in the First Schedule to the Sales Tax (Exemptions and Classifications) Act 1935-1947. The relevant exemption appears in Division I—"Agricultural Machinery, Implements, Equipment and Materials." Section 3 (2) of the Act, however, provides that the heading to any division in a schedule shall not be read as affecting the interpretation of that schedule or of any item in the schedule. Accordingly the fact that the word "agricultural" appears in the heading of the division is, it is expressly provided, not to affect the interpretation of any of the items in the schedule. The item under which the question arises appears in par. 6 of Div. I. The heading of this paragraph is—"Goods (and parts therefor) for use in the maintenance of livestock, viz. (4) Foods for livestock."

The foods in question are manufactured for sale to and use by persons who breed fish commercially for sale or Government Departments which breed fish for stocking rivers &c. In the Oxford English Dictionary "livestock" is defined as follows:—"Domestic animals generally; animals of any kind kept or dealt in for use or profit." Fish come within the latter words. Fish are animals. They are not vegetables or minerals or creatures of indeterminate classification. Fish are bred for commercial disposition in the same manner as cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, domestic poultry and various other birds, such as pigeons, budgerigars &c. Fish farms are not as common in Australia as poultry farms, but there is no difference between them in their commercial characteristics—they all produce animals for sale. The fact that such breeding of fish is not conducted on the same large scale as in the case of other animals cannot alter the meaning or the application of the word "livestock."