A recent Supreme Court decision has made it clear that there is nothing in the Retail Leases Act that restricts the issue of a certificate by the VSBC until after a mediation has been conducted and the absence of a mediation does not invalidate a certificate. The VSBC can form a view that a mediation is unlikely to resolve a dispute based on the refusal of one party to participate in a proposed mediation and issue a valid certificate so that an aggrieved party can commence proceedings in VCAT.

The Victorian Supreme Court has confirmed that payment of funds into Court as security for costs will not give rise to a security interest required to be registered on the PPSR, even if the payment was made pursuant to consent orders. This means that section 267 of the PPSA will not assist external administrators to recover funds paid into Court as security for costs under a Court order.

On 17 August 2023, the Court of Appeal in the Victoria Supreme Court handed down its decision in Krongold v Thurin [2023] VSCA 191. This decision is a further instalment in a long running domestic building dispute between homeowners, David and Lisa Thurin (Thurin) and their builder, Krongold Constructions (Aust) Pty Ltd (Krongold).

In Deputy Commissioner of Taxation v Pedley (No 2) (2018) FCA 2015 (Pedley), the Federal Court confirmed the wide discretion available to the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) to allocate payments made to it for tax debts especially where the taxpayer has not provided explicit direction as to what payments should be applied to which debts.

The High Court in Commissioner of Taxation v Tomaras & Ors (2018) HCA 62 (Tomaras) has confirmed the Federal Circuit Court had jurisdiction to make orders altering the property interests of parties to a marriage substituting one party for the other party as sole debtor to the Commissioner of Taxation (Commissioner) in respect of income tax liabilities owed by the first party.

Sladen Legal recently held an event at the RACV club titled 'Estate Planning and the Modern Family'

In the 2016-2017 Economic and Fiscal Outlook (http://www.budget.gov.au/2016-17/content/myefo/download/09-Appendix-A-Revenue.pdf), the Government announced that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) would be allowed to report to credit reporting agencies the tax debt information of entities that don’t effectively engage with the ATO to manage those tax debts.