The Supreme Court has ruled that judicial officers are liable to pay income tax and that Advance Personal Income Tax (APIT) can lawfully be deducted from their remuneration.
The appeals were filed by representatives of the High Court Judges’ Association, Judicial Service Association, and Association of Judicial Officers of Labour Tribunal, challenging a 2023 Court of Appeal decision that dismissed applications against the imposition and deduction of APIT from judicial officers.
The five-member Supreme Court bench comprised Chief Justice P. Padman Surasena and Justices A.L. Shiran Gooneratne, Janak De Silva, Mahinda Samayawardhana and Arjuna Obeyesekere.
The judicial officers had argued that they were not employees of the State or any other person and that treating them as employees for tax purposes was inconsistent with the constitutional principle of judicial independence.
They had sought an order preventing future APIT deductions and the recovery of amounts already deducted.
However, Justice Janak De Silva held that the Inland Revenue Act does not establish an employer-employee relationship between judicial officers and the relevant respondents in the conventional sense.
Instead, the Act identifies the party responsible for paying their salaries for the limited purpose of determining who is required to deduct APIT, the judgment held.
