A REVIEW OF JUDICIAL REFERENCES TO THE DICTUM OF JORDAN CJ, EXPRESSED IN SCOTT V COMMISSIONER OF TAXATION, IN ELABORATING THE MEANING OF ‘INCOME’ FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE AUSTRALIAN INCOME TAX By Mark Burton
Abstract
Judicial consideration of the meaning of ‘income’ (ITAA1936) and ‘ordinary income’(ITAA1997) includes reference to a dictum of Jordan CJ describing a process for discovering the meaning of ‘income’ for the purposes of the then New South Wales income tax. Over the past eighty years the import of this dictum has been described in various ways in case decisions. This paper identifies these different judicial descriptions of the dictum’s meaning and considers the significance of this diversity when describing the process by which the meaning of ‘ordinary income’ ought to be ascertained.