Ms Marie-Claire Maney:

We do not give an opinion. We will give a determination, or a decision, after hearing the case in November. The organisation concerned has already been to the High Court for a judicial review, which is a separate proceeding. It lodged its tax appeal with us at the same time as the judicial review. We could not hear the judicial review, which obviously causes a delay on our statistics. The High Court decision was finalised in November or December 2020. In January, after the timeline for appeal had expired, we wrote to the parties and asked whether they want the case listed because we were keen to list it. The parties gave us the date in November as the soonest time when both parties could be prepared for the hearing due to the complexity of the hearing. Anything that goes on prior to our hearing is entirely a matter for the parties. Those are the vagaries of a quasi-judicial body. We could be told the night before or even on the morning of a hearing that a case has settled. In that scenario, we have, effectively, lost a month because a commissioner's time has already been allocated to that case.