1 May 2017
OS 13/02 is a permissive operational statement and does not unambiguously limit the Commissioner's broad statutory power under s 17; it could not give rise to a legitimate expectation that s 17 notices would not be issued to a tax agent before seeking information from taxpayers, and the Commissioner acted within her statutory discretion.
16 Dec 2016
The appeal is dismissed because discovery in judicial review is discretionary and must be tied to the issues pleaded; Chatfield's surviving pleaded cause did not particularise how the exchanged documents were relied on or were relevant to a justiciable issue (and the Commissioner had considered Article 25), so there was no basis to exercise s10(2)(i) discretion to order discovery of the documents exchanged with the NTS.
27 Sept 2016
OS 13/02 does not contain an unambiguous promise that the Commissioner would seek information from a taxpayer or other third parties before issuing s 17 notices to tax agents, so the legitimate expectation claim is not reasonably arguable and is struck out; however the allegation that the Commissioner failed to take into account the terms of Article 25 of the New Zealand–Korea DTA is reasonably arguable and may proceed to trial.