Ibolya Szucs v Deputy Commissioner of Taxation [2007] FCA 1492

In Ibolya Szucs v Deputy Commissioner of Taxation [2007] FCA 1492 the applicant resisted a sequestration order that issued regarding an unpaid tax debt. The notice of appeal sought orders that the sequestration order be set aside, that the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation, the Australian Taxation Office and an officer employed in the Australian Taxation Office pay the applicant $25 million in damages and that all relevant fees be waived, on the grounds that a “Private Administrative Process” had been reached and that the matter had been settled and closed as agreed to by all parties “as evidenced by the Certificate of Dishonour and the debt offset by tender of private prepaid asset account.”

The “consideration” which the applicant claimed constituted a payment which would discharge her debt consisted of a series of court documents (including the Bankruptcy Notice) and various documents raised by the Australian Tax Office over which Ms Szucs had, on each page, stamped with the words “accepted and returned for value” with a notice that “Silence or non-response shall be deemed that this account has been settled in full and closed.  All actions to be completed within 21 days.”

The court rejected the notion that the documents had settled the tax debt, and dismissed the appeal, noting that the grounds were “largely incomprehensible” but that applicant sought “…to call into question the legality of aspects of the currency and banking systems which operate in this country.  Such arguments bear some resemblance to those rejected by the High Court in Re Skyring (1985) 58 ALR 629 and Re Cusack (1985) 66 ALR 93.”