Tax recovery from a former partner requires proof of the liable taxable entity and the basis for personal liability.

Tax recovery against an individual for a firm's assessed sales tax cannot proceed unless the legally liable taxable entity and the basis of personal liability are first determined. The Court noted that mere past partnership status or the fact that the person effected sales as an authorised controller did not, by itself, establish liability for the firm's tax. Before recovery could be enforced on the footing of former partner liability, it was necessary to examine whether the partnership agreement was still in force and whether the firm subsisted during the relevant assessment years. On that basis, the recovery proceedings were held unsustainable on the material considered.

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Issues: Whether sales tax assessed against a firm could be recovered from the appellant without first determining whether, during the relevant assessment years, the partnership was subsisting and whether any taxable entity existed against whom liability could lawfully be enforced.

Analysis: The recovery notice proceeded on the footing that the appellant, having sold goods as authorised controller and having once been a partner, could be proceeded against for the firm's tax. The Court held that this approach was unsustainable because the appellant had not been assessed as authorised controller, and the mere fact that he had effected sales did not by itself establish personal liability for the firm's tax. Before enforcing liability on the basis that he was a former partner, it was necessary to determine whether the partnership agreement was in force and whether the firm continued as a subsisting partnership during the relevant years of assessment. That foundational question had not been examined.

Conclusion: The recovery proceedings against the appellant could not be sustained on the material considered, and the High Court's order was set aside with a direction to decide the petition afresh according to law.

Ratio Decidendi: Liability for tax assessed against a firm cannot be enforced against an individual without first determining the legally relevant taxable entity and the basis on which personal liability is said to arise.

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