It is a rare case where a Court will exercise its discretion to stay debt proceedings for asserted tax liabilities, given the legislative policy to give “priority to the recovery of taxation revenue notwithstanding that a taxpayer has a Part IVC proceeding on foot”.
Despite this, in Deputy Commissioner of Taxation v Ho [2026] NSWSC 247, the Supreme Court of New South Wales was persuaded to stay proceedings brought by the Deputy Commissioner against a natural person for over $66 million of asserted tax-related liabilities.
In this case, the asserted debts underlying the proceeding remained the subject, variously, of extant judicial review proceedings, and Part IVC proceedings under the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth), in the Federal Court of Australia and the Administrative Review Tribunal. In those circumstances, and in light of financial evidence which was before the Court, Elkaim AJ found that extreme hardship would be visited upon the defendant should the proceeding not be stayed. This, coupled with the need to progress the litigation to facilitate the just, quick and cheap resolution of the real issues in the proceedings, as required by s 56 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW), surpassed the legislative policy to give priority to the recovery of taxation revenue.
Courtney Ensor and Justen Nixon appeared for the taxpayer, instructed by Jeffrey Wang and Jamie Gu of GWH & Associates.
A copy of the decision can be found at: https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/19d0838d89319e6d841f9a22
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