If a computer-generated letter arrives from the Australian
Taxation Office informing you that the interest you owe on a tax
debt is not due to be paid, you would most likely assume that this
is the decision of the tax office.
Unfortunately, this assumption would be incorrect.
Machines unable to make rational decisions, thus
computer-generated letters could be unreliable
The Full Federal Court of Australia decided in 2018 that a
taxpayer is liable for the interest charges on their tax bill, even
though they'd been sent a letter from the ATO stating that the
interest was not due to be paid.
Even though the letter stated that it was from the Deputy Tax
Commissioner, the Full Federal Court ruled that because it was
machine-generated correspondence and there was no related mental
decision involved, it could not be depended on as a decision that
the ATO had made on the interest. (See
Pintarich v Deputy Commissioner of Taxation [2018] FACFC
79.)
