Club refreshment supplies can be business and taxable sales where the activity is regular, organised, and tariff-based.

A club's regular, continuous and organised supply of refreshments to members was treated as business under the sales tax law where the statutory definition covered trade, commerce and ancillary or incidental activities, even without a profit motive. The supply was also treated as a sale, because the club operated as an incorporated body, charged fixed tariffs, supplied goods to members and some non-members, and showed surplus and fund accumulation rather than a mere principal-agent or expense-recovery arrangement. The statute's express inclusion of clubs selling goods to members supported dealer status and assessment, subject to any applicable exemption under section 26A(2).

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Issues: (i) whether the club's supply of refreshments to its members formed part of "business" within the meaning of the sales tax law; (ii) whether such supply constituted "sale" so as to render the club a "dealer" liable to tax and assessment.

Issue (i): whether the club's supply of refreshments to its members formed part of "business" within the meaning of the sales tax law.

Analysis: The definition of "business" in the Act was wide enough to include trade, commerce, manufacture and any adventure or concern in the nature of trade, commerce or manufacture, whether or not carried on with profit motive, as well as transactions ancillary or incidental thereto. The club's catering activity was regular, continuous and organised, and was not excluded merely because it was run for members' convenience and not primarily for profit. Earlier decisions turning on the absence of a statutory definition of "business", or on statutes with materially different language, were distinguished. On the facts, the supply of refreshments was treated as an activity in the nature of business.

Conclusion: The activity of supplying refreshments was held to be business.

Issue (ii): whether such supply constituted "sale" so as to render the club a "dealer" liable to tax and assessment.

Analysis: The club was an incorporated body and not a mere conduit for members. The record showed supply not only to members and guests but also to certain non-members on payment, at fixed tariff, with some surplus and with funds being built up from excess charges. The Court found no material to show a true principal-agent arrangement or mere recoupment of expenses. The statutory definition of "dealer" expressly included a club selling goods to its members, and the constitutional amendment validating taxation on certain supplies did not detract from the operation of the State enactment in the present context. The notices for assessment were therefore within jurisdiction, subject to the statutory exemption consideration under section 26A(2).

Conclusion: The supply was held to be sale, and the club was held to be a dealer liable to assessment.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the assessment notices failed, the club's liability to tax was upheld, and the application was dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: Under a sales tax statute with an expansive definition of "business" and an express inclusion of clubs selling goods to members as dealers, a club that supplies refreshments from its own funds at fixed tariff, without a genuine principal-agent relationship, carries on business and effects taxable sales even if profit motive is absent.

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