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
Family law
Not an even split
Harridan [2026] FedCFamC1A 104; Keadle [2026] FedCFamC1F 477
Two 2026 family law decisions gave the wife 65 and 63 per cent: one for an inheritance, one after SMSF withdrawals and a wide income gap.
Family law
Who got the benefit
Joubert (No 5) [2026] FedCFamC1F 402
A wife alone owed the ATO about $4.2 million. The court shared the burden 80/20 because the unpaid tax had helped pay for the house they both owned.
Disputes
One email, seven chances
Watson (No 2) [2026] FCA 1341
An email withdrew a taxpayer's Tribunal case. After seven listings over 12 months, missing medical evidence, not the email, ended it.
In the Media
Published commentary
Government needs legal counsel on its ‘tax on the poor’, lawyer says
The proposed 30 per cent minimum tax on discretionary trusts. Why it would fall hardest on the family members a trust exists to provide for and why section 100A already deals with income kept for someone else.
Accountants Daily · 30 July 2026Lost clients, lost livelihood: fair TPB suspension requires hearing, lawyer says
The proposed power for the Tax Practitioners Board to suspend a tax agent for 90 days without prior investigation. Why a hearing should come before the suspension issues.
$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.
Have a matter you want a straight answer on?
Most engagements start with a short conversation about the issue and the exposure.