Specialist Tax Law · Sydney
Specialist tax law in Sydney. Advisory, disputes and transactions, handled by experts you can trust.
The Practice
Norton & Quay Tax Law is a specialist taxation law practice in Sydney: tax advisory, dispute resolution and transactional work.
The practice is deliberately small. The person you speak to is the person doing the work and matters are scoped and quoted before they start. We act for private groups, businesses, families, property developers and not-for-profits. Most of our work comes through the accountants and advisers who act for them.
Eight areas of practice
ATO Disputes & Tax Controversy
Audits, reviews, position papers, objections, penalties and interest, settlements and litigation support.
Read moreTrusts & Private Groups
Division 7A, section 100A, trustee resolutions, deed defects, vesting dates and private group restructures.
Read moreNSW State Taxes
Surcharge duty and land tax, first home concessions, landholder duty, payroll tax and Revenue NSW objections.
Read moreTax Advisory & Restructuring
Structures and restructures, rollovers, small business CGT concessions, succession and wind-downs.
Read moreGST
Margin scheme, going concern, property and business sales, input tax credits, adjustments and GST disputes.
Read morePrivate Rulings & ATO Engagement
Private binding ruling applications, early engagement and applications for the Commissioner to exercise a discretion.
Read moreTransactions & Due Diligence
Deal structuring, tax due diligence, warranties and indemnities and post-completion implementation.
Read moreCross-Border & Residency
Residency, foreign trusts and section 99B, non-resident beneficiaries and inbound investment.
Read moreWho we help
Accountants & Advisers
Second opinions, written advice, privilege and dispute work, without competing for your compliance.
Read morePrivate Clients & Families
ATO and Revenue NSW matters, trusts and succession, estates, residency and foreign inheritances.
Read moreBusiness Owners & SMEs
Division 7A, restructures, payroll tax on contractors and getting the structure right before a sale.
Read moreProperty Developers & Investors
Margin scheme, revenue versus capital, duty across jurisdictions and development structuring.
Read more
The Principal
Arda Ahmed
Arda Ahmed is an Australian legal practitioner and the principal of the firm. He trained at EY, worked through three Doyle’s Guide-ranked specialist tax practices: Birchstone Tax Law and Fry Legal in Western Australia and West Garbutt in Queensland, followed by KPMG Australia. Prior to founding Norton & Quay, he was Special Counsel at Mills Oakley in Sydney.
He has advised private groups, corporates and high-net-worth families on income tax, CGT and GST. He has managed ATO reviews under the Top 100 and Next 5,000 programs. He is an elected member of The Tax Institute’s NSW State Council. He wrote the cover article for The Tax Specialist on restructuring using roll-overs, presented at the 2025 and 2026 NSW Tax Forums and publishes regularly on recent decisions.
Insights
Notes on recent tax decisions
Disputes
The folder nobody opened
A Tribunal decision on the safe harbour, what has to be handed to a new agent and a penalty that turned on an unopened folder.
Tax agents
Ninety days, no hearing
The Bill before Parliament would let the Board suspend a tax agent for 90 days without a hearing. It lands hardest on sole practitioners.
Trusts
The rollover question nobody is asking the trustee
The proposed trust to company rollover moves essentially all the assets to some beneficiaries only. Who loses and what the paper does not say.
In the Media
Published commentary
$253,055 on an unsigned draft: the limits of s 12(4)(b) of the NSW Duties Act
Forever Grateful Holdings Pty Ltd v Chief Commissioner of State Revenue [2026] NSWSC 761. Uploading an unexecuted draft transfer to the Revenue NSW eDuties portal does not crystallise a duty liability. A $253,055 assessment on a routine trustee change was revoked; the correct duty was $100.
When should an appellate court disbelieve witnesses it never saw?
Commissioner of Taxation v Cheung [2026] FCAFC 75. When an appellate court may overturn a trial judge’s credibility findings, where the documentary record contradicts the oral evidence.
The Tax Institute · 22 May 2026Year-end trustee resolutions
What the deed actually requires before 30 June, the mechanics of creating a valid present entitlement and where resolutions most often fail.
Accounting Times · 20 April 2026Home office occupancy expenses after Hall: is it time to rethink the essential character test?
Commissioner of Taxation v Hall [2026] FCAFC 43. Employees cannot deduct occupancy expenses for a dedicated home office even where they were required to work from home. And why the Full Court’s reasoning reads as an invitation to revisit the test.
Have a matter you want a straight answer on?
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