Federal Commissioner of Taxation v Riley
50 CLR 69(Judgment by: Starke J)
Between: Federal Commissioner of Taxation - Plaintiff
And: Riley - Defendant
Judges:
Rich J
Dixon J
McTiernan J
Starke JEvatt J
Judgment date: 20 June 1935
Sydney
Judgment by:
Starke J
Sales tax is imposed upon the Sale value of goods manufactured in Australia by a taxpayer and sold by him, or treated by him as stock for sale by retail, or applied to his own use (Sales Tax Acts, 1930 No. 26; 1930 No. 63; Sales Tax Assessment Act (No.1) 1930-1935). Goods includes commodities. Manufacture includes production; manufactured has a meaning corresponding to that of manufacture. Manufacturer means a person who engages, whether exclusively or not, in the manufacture of goods, and includes a printer, publisher, lithographer, or engraver, and a person (not being an employee) who makes up goods, whether or not the materials out of which the goods are made are owned by him ( Sales Tax Assessment Act (No.1) 1930-1935, sec. 3).
The taxpayer carries on the business of a photographer; clients go to him and sit for their photographs; the taxpayer takes the photographs, and supplies copies in a finished condition, tinted or untinted, to his client as ordered graphs supplied to the client, and than for an untinted photograph. A charge is made for the photo-the charge is greater for a tinted The question is whether photographs so taken by the taxpayer and supplied to clients are goods manufactured in Australia, within the meaning of the Sales Tax Acts.
The primary meaning of the word manufacture is something' made by hand as distinguished from a natural growth. But machinery has largely supplanted the manual method, and a manufacture is thus any article or material produced by the application of physical labour or mechanical power (Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "manufacture"). It is said that a photograph cannot fall within such a description, any more than could a painting or a statue or any other work of art the result of an artist's skill or genius. But we must turn to the Act itself (Dominion Press Ltd. v. Minister of Customs and Excise ). [F2] It is framed in comprehensive terms and the exemption of certain works of art in 1931 and 1933 indicates in no uncertain manner the scope of the legislation.
Again, as already stated, manufacture includes production, which world cover coal, gas or electric current, but for their exemption in the Schedule; and the term manufacturer includes a printer, publisher, lithographer, or engraver, who may do no more than change the condition of an article already manufactured. The taxpayer produces an article - a photograph - and supplies it to his client for a price. Having regard to the various provisions of the Aces, the produc- tion of photographs and supplying them to clients for a price in the ordinary course of the taxpayer's business constitutes, in my opinion, a manufacture of goods within the meaning of the Sales Tax Acts above referred to.
The questions submitted in the special case should be answered in the affirmative, and judgment entered as agreed between the parties.