Commissioner of Taxation v Messenger Press Proprietary Ltd [2013] FCAFC 77: Foreign Currency Losses

The full Federal Court of Australia has dismissed the Commissioner of Taxation's (the Commissioner's) appeal in Commissioner of Taxation v Messenger Press Proprietary Ltd [2013] FCAFC 77 (25 July 2013).

The appeal resulted from orders made by the Federal Court on the 6 August 2012, allowing appeals in thirty related matters under the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth) Pt IVC (reviews and objections) where the Commissioner, had disallowed objections to assessments of income tax in respect of the years ending on 30 June 2001 and 2002. The assessments at issue were currency exchange losses alleged to have been made by News Publishers Holdings Pty Ltd (NPHP) in the 2001 and 2002 financial years for the sums of $A629,662,666 and $A1,419,051,871 respectively, losses which were subsequently transferred.

The key questions which arose were whether there were losses and the extent of those looses, and whether the losses were an allowable deduction for income tax purposes under Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) Division 3B of Part III. The Court dismissed the Commissioners appeal.

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