/biz/ - Business & Finance

“Money”

InTravelex Limited v Commissioner of Taxation[2008] FCA 1961 (Travelex), Emmett J made observations regarding “money” (including the subsets “currency” and “legal tender”—refer to discussion below).
With respect to the term “money”, Emmett J wrote that (at paragraph 25):

Money is any generally accepted medium of exchange for goods and services and for the payment of debts (see Butterworth’s Australian Legal Dictionary at 759). Currency and legal tender are examples of money. However, a thing can be money and can operate as a generally accepted medium and means of exchange, without being legal tender. Thus, bank notes have historically been treated as money, notwithstanding that they were not legal tender. It is common consent and conduct that gives a thing the character of money (see Miller v Race (1758) 1 Burrow 452 at 457). Money is that which passes freely from hand to hand throughout the community in final discharge of debts and full payment for commodities, being accepted equally without reference to the character or credit of the person who offers it and without the intention of the person who receives it to consume it or apply it to any other use than in turn to tender it to others in discharge of debts or payment for commodities (see Moss v Hancock [1899] 2 QB 111 at 116).

Emmett J’s views inTravelexregarding “money” were not overturned on appeal to the Full Federal Court and the High Court.

Can someone please just tell Roger that it's over? Don't let the poor man suffer like this.