Government of the

Principality of Hutt River
www.principality-hutt-river.org/gov

As many of you may have already seen/heard, the Media this week informed me that the ATO (Australian Tax Office) has lodged documents with the Australian High Court with the intention, I assume, of trying to claim AU$2.6M in back taxes from 2006 - 2013. I will point out that this information has come from the media who were apparently at the court when the documents were lodged, to date I have not been served with anything and whilst not having been found guilty of any offence and despite previous statements by the same ATO agreeing that those PHR Subjects resident in the PHR are deemed non-resident in Australia, thus no taxes are payable to Australia and any income earned within Australia would be taxed at the non-resident rate. See one of the annual letters received confirming this fact.

Since the PHR has no business or money earning capabilities in Australia there has been no problem with the ATO agreed ruling. The ATO also confirmed, in writing and many times, that business and money earning enterprises in the PHR are again not in Australia, thus no GST registration is required nor applicable and also, there is no requirement for businesses in the PHR to have Australian Business Numbers (ABN). An apology is being demanded from the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia; the Minister of Taxation of Australia and the Commissioner of taxation of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for false persecution, also implementing a form of torture to cause stress, by issuing demands for tax from "HRH Prince Leonard" whom the ATO in their own reasoning recognize is the sovereign of the Principality of Hutt River.

In the early 1970’s I, Leonard Casley arranged with the ATO, at my request, a basis of understanding on tax issues where in the Casley family lands had been
seceded from Western Australia.

Then, some few years later, I went to the ATO and presented them with a cheque for payment of that which I considered owed to the ATO up to the point of secession. The ATO replied shortly after that advising I did not owe the money but they were going to hold it for any moneys that may be found due. A very large bill was soon after calculated by the ATO against LG & SJ Casley. Our accountant at the time then took issue with the ATO with the result:-

Businesses of Hutt river Province were excluded from business of LG & SJ Casley under an ATO ruling.

I and my late wife Shirley disposed of all our other business activities within Australia and operated the Hutt river Province (as it was known at the time) under the ATO exemption ruling. This has continued now for 46+ years since the secession.

No authority has ever ruled or declared that the secession was unlawful. In fact all records of the Australian government state “Leonard George Casley has in his activities not committed any offence against Australian laws.”

The law principle there is, “If an action is not unlawful, then it is lawful.”
Also, another law principle applicable is “If a major action is not unlawful, then any minor offence arising out of the major action is also not an offence in law.”

I, Prince Leonard have no contract with the ATO.

The Australian Government appear to be trying to evade a large claim of some AU$52M + 7% P.A. interest which was served on them by myself in 1970 through Sir Douglas Kendrew, then Governor of Western Australia. I, as Sovereign of the PHR have been pushing for settlement of the Casley’s claim of late, 46 years wait for a settlement of claim is far too long; but as the claim also involved the British Government, all involved are trying to shed the liability there to.

It would appear that the Australian Government are determined to evade the application of the valid laws of Australia which are relative to the case.

END RELEASE!

   HRH Prince Leonard
           Sovereign
Principality of Hutt River

Downloaded release in .PDF form VIEW HERE!

For more information contact:
 huttriver@principality-hutt-river.com