Where a taxpayer has applied to extend a tax payment deadline and heard nothing back, when does that silence amount to approval of the extension?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file we read the application for extension of the payment deadline with the stamp or receipt showing the date it reached the local government, the tax payment notice fixing the expiry of the payment deadline under this Act or the local tax laws, and any notification of approval or refusal sent by the head of the local government.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading treats the deemed approval as narrowly conditional: where the application to extend the payment deadline is lodged before the cut-off the provision sets ahead of the deadline's expiry, and the head of the local government gives no notification of approval or refusal within the period set from the application date, the extension is treated as approved on the day that period runs out.
Another reading notes the limits: the paragraph on deemed approval speaks only of the payment deadline, so a silent head of the local government produces no deemed approval for the reports, applications, claims, other document filings or notices that the extension provision also reaches; nor does the provision say what follows where the application arrives after the cut-off, leaving that to the discretionary power in the first paragraph.
Your judgment
If the application reached the office after the cut-off point the provision sets, what in the file would show whether the silence still counts as approval?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change the cut-off point, the period for notification or the deemed-approval rule itself, or if a court decision settles whether silence after a late application can amount to approval.