Greg Poland-chaired Strzelecki Group has failed in its appeal against a court decision, in its dispute against the tax office over millions of dollars spent on Sorrento Quay.
Nedlands-based Skycorp Investments launched legal action against the Commissioner of Taxation in the Federal Court’s WA registry, alleging the latter wrongly deducted the expenditure incurred for capital works at a building in the Hillarys Boat Harbour.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission data shows Skycorp is owned by Strzelecki Holdings, a property company founded and led by Mr Poland.
In a recent decision by Federal Court judge Michael Feutrill, Skycorp was ordered to pay the Commissioner of Taxation’s orders after its application for leave to appeal was dismissed.
The Australian Taxation Office calculated Skycorp’s pool of construction expenditure on the building in Sorrento Quay, from 1998 to 2014, was almost $2.7 million, according to Justice Feutrill’s judgment.
However, Skycorp claimed it spent at least $3.5 million on the building which could be deducted from its taxable income.
As the taxpayer, Skycorp raised ten grounds of appeal against the primary judge’s findings.
According to the judgment, Skycorp claimed the Commissioner’s replacement appeal statement was an abuse of process.
Justice Feutrill said, in his judgment, that nothing was arguably incorrect in the primary judge’s observation and described Skycorp’s approach as unorthodox.
“There is insufficient merit in proposed grounds 1 to 4 to warrant reconsideration of the primary judge’s dismissal orders,” he said.
Justice Feutrill found the other proposed grounds of appeal to be “hopeless”.
In his judgment, Justice Feutrill also described Skycorp’s submissions on the appeal application as “unusually detailed, long and complicated for an application of this nature”.
Skycorp acquired the building in Sorrento Quay, in the Hillarys Boat Harbour precinct, in 1997 after it was constructed, according to the judgment.
