Does this look like a biscuit?...Alfred Abbatangelo took the
AustralianTax Office to court over a ruling on his ciabette's
GST status. He lost and it has cost him a cool million dollars.
IF IT looks like a cracker and snaps like a cracker, then it's not a piece of bread.
That finding means Alfred Abbatangelo, a small-scale Melbourne food importer, will have to clear his cookie jar of more than $1 million after unsuccessfully challenging the tax office over the GST status of Perfetto Mini Ciabatte.
Mr Abbatangelo and witnesses including a cereal chemist argued the mini ciabatte was more bread than cracker, owing to its composition and baking method. ''I was extremely confident [of winning] because the product has been recognised for 200 years in Italy as a bread,'' he said.
But Judge Ross Sundberg ruled that overseas perceptions of ciabatte, also known in Italy as ciappe, were irrelevant: ''For all I know, the meaning of biscuit or cracker may differ in Italy or Europe from that accepted or understood in Australia.'' The mini ciabatte had the same ingredients as ciappe, classified as bread in Italy, but ''I do not accept that the size and general appearance of mini ciabatte can be put aside''.
Its placement in the biscuit aisle in supermarkets added weight to the argument that it should be subject to GST, the judge said.
Mr Abbatangelo said the decision ignored multicultural influences on Australia's food industry. He is considering an appeal.
