Administrative tax review bodies are not courts where legislation makes them part of the assessment machinery.

A statutory board reviewing tax assessments is not a court exercising the judicial power of the Commonwealth merely because it hears disputes and makes binding determinations. Its character depends on whether the legislation places it within the administrative assessment and review machinery rather than conferring judicial finality akin to court orders. Here, the Board of Review was created to reconsider the Commissioner's determinations and its decisions operated as administrative equivalents of those decisions, so it was held to be an administrative tribunal, not a court. The challenge to the assessment therefore failed, and the appeal was dismissed with costs.

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Issues: Whether the Board of Review constituted under the Income Tax Assessment Act was a Court exercising the judicial power of the Commonwealth or an administrative tribunal.

Analysis: The Board of Review was created to reconsider the Commissioner's tax determinations and its decisions were framed as administrative equivalents of the Commissioner's own decisions. The statutory scheme differed materially from the appeal provisions dealing with the Court, and the Board's decisions were not given the attributes of judicial finality attaching to court orders. The Board therefore formed part of the machinery for administrative assessment and review rather than a court vested with the judicial power of the Commonwealth under the Constitution.

Conclusion: The Board of Review was an administrative tribunal, not a court exercising judicial power.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the assessment failed because the impugned review machinery was held to be constitutionally valid, and the appeal was dismissed with costs.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory body tasked with reviewing tax assessments is not a court exercising judicial power merely because it hears disputes and makes binding determinations; its character depends on whether the legislation makes it part of the administrative assessment process rather than the exercise of judicial power.

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