Carey loses appeal over $700k bill

Property developer Norm Carey has lost a last-ditch attempt to contest outstanding land taxes totalling $700,000 after the appeal was thrown out by the Supreme Court.

In a determination handed down this afternoon, Justice Paul Tottle dismissed Mr Carey’s appeal application, which sought a review of the bills, some of which dated back more than a decade.

The appeal centred around tax notices issued on five parcels of land in Warwick controlled by his entity, Silkchime.

Silkchime was under the control of receivers for more than 13 years until 2019, prompting a lengthy and bitter court stoush comprising various disputes between Mr Carey and the receivers.

While receivers paid some of the land tax due between 2006 and 2011, the court heard they had failed to pay any statutory charges in the years that followed.

Mr Carey wrote to the Office of State Revenue on two occasions between 2014 and 2017 with updates on the company’s circumstances and the status of the outstanding land tax bill amid threats of legal action.

The court was told Mr Carey asked the State Solicitor’s Office not to wind up the company in 2018, promising to pay the outstanding debts as soon as his legal battle with receivers was resolved.

A further tax notice was issued in January 2019, and the following month, Mr Carey was hit with a letter demanding payment of $717,556.

The following month, receivers retired and Mr Carey was granted a three-month extension of time to pay the bill.

In July 2019, Mr Carey contested the land valuations, insisting the valuer general had failed to account for the adverse effect of the need for a structure plan under the local government’s planning framework.

But the valuer general rebutted the claims, refusing to grant Silkchime an extension of time to object to the valuations that formed the basis of the notices between 2005 and 2014.

That decision was subsequently appealed and dismissed by the State Administrative Tribunal, prompting Mr Carey to take that dismissal all the way to the Supreme Court.

More to come.