A tax dispute is won or lost long before anyone files anything. It is won in what gets said in the first response to the ATO, what evidence is assembled while it is still available and whether the position taken at the audit stage is one you can still run two years later on objection.
We are brought in at every stage: sometimes at the first risk-review letter, more often once a position paper has landed and the numbers have become real. The work is the same either way: establish what the Commissioner actually has to prove, work out what you can prove and take the shortest defensible path to a resolution.
Where we act
What we do
- ATO risk reviews, audits and information requests, including Next 5,000 and private group programs
- Position papers and reasons for decision: responding on the technical merits and on the evidence
- Objections against assessments, amended assessments and private ruling decisions
- Default and estimated assessments and discharging the burden of proof under Part IVC
- Shortfall penalties: reasonable care, reasonably arguable position, recklessness and intentional disregard
- Remission of shortfall interest charge and general interest charge
- Voluntary disclosures, including scoping what to disclose and when
- Settlement strategy, deeds of settlement and negotiating with ATO decision-makers
- Review applications to the Administrative Review Tribunal and appeals to the Federal Court
- Debt matters: payment arrangements, garnishee notices, director penalty notices and release on serious hardship grounds under Division 340
How we work
Our approach
Scope first. Before any substantive response, we establish what is actually in issue, what powers the ATO is exercising and what the realistic range of outcomes is. That determines whether the matter should be fought, disclosed or settled.
Evidence before argument. Technical arguments are cheap. Evidence is not. We identify early what has to be proved and whether the material to prove it exists, because that dictates strategy.
Phased scopes. Disputes run over long periods. We scope work in phases with a fee estimate for each phase so the cost is visible before it is incurred.
Common questions
How long do I have to object?
It depends on what you are objecting to. For an original assessment, the period is generally two years from the date the notice is given for most individuals and small business entities and four years for others. For an amended assessment it is the later of 60 days from the amended assessment and the balance of the original period, confined to the amended particulars. A late objection can be lodged with a request for an extension of time. Treat the date on the notice as a hard deadline and work backwards.
Can penalties and interest be reduced after an assessment issues?
Yes. Shortfall penalty can be remitted in whole or part and shortfall interest charge and general interest charge can be remitted separately on separate tests. Remission is a discretion, so the case has to be made, usually by showing what care was actually taken at the time and what evidence supports it.
Case notes
Recent decisions on ATO disputes
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.
Deductions
Being better at the job is not the job
Hartley [2026] ARTA 1590
The Tribunal denies an employee's home lab, storage and subscription claims. The reasons apply Hatchett and never test Finn.
Disputes
The deed he signed anyway
Egan [2026] FCA 1104
The Federal Court refuses to vary a settlement deed with the Commonwealth over a 2003 private ruling the Commissioner later determined was incorrect.
Disputes
A rehearing, not a result
Hasan [2026] FCA 1072
The Federal Court sets aside a Tribunal decision on childcare fees said to belong to the educators. The win may change little on remittal.
Disputes
The folder nobody opened
BHZD [2026] ARTA 1376
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.
Show all 36 notes
Disputes
The casino knew more than the return
Cai [2026] ARTA 1224
A Tribunal decision where $42,000 of declared income met half a million dollars of casino buy-ins, and the friends-lent-it defence had no records.
Income tax
Conducting the orchestra
Larmar [2026] FCA 826
The Federal Court assesses 30 years of syndicate fees to the accountant personally, with the bank documents doing much of the damage.
Deductions
The ball gown was never deductible
WXGY [2026] ARTA 1129
A Tribunal decision allowing about $48,700 of $143,788 claimed by a real estate agent and upholding a 50 per cent penalty for re-running audited claims.
Disputes
The Crocodile Dundee royalty claim
Bouvet [2026] ARTA 1075
A Tribunal decision on a $19.6 million withholding credit claim, what sits outside an assessment and when an application has no reasonable prospects.
Disputes
Hardship, measured line by line
Prasser [2026] ARTA 1053
A Tribunal decision releasing a $148,582 tax debt for serious hardship, and how the household budget is tested line by line.
Tax agents
Thirty days to report a breach
Registered practitioners must report significant Code breaches, their own and other practitioners’, within 30 days. What counts as significant and what is coming.
Disputes
The gifts that arrived monthly for eleven years
Cheung [2026] FCAFC 75
The Full Federal Court on why $30 million in regular payments from a family business were income, and why demeanour cannot outweigh the documents.
Disputes
Picking at the assessment is not proof
Fan [2026] ARTA 875
A Tribunal decision on default assessments where the Commissioner filed a mess and the taxpayer still lost, because the burden never moved.
Tax agents
Truckies Tax Accountants, permanently restrained
Hinckfuss (No 2) [2026] FCA 529
The Federal Court permanently restrains a repeat unregistered preparer, and what a failure to file a concise statement in response means on default judgment.
Deductions
Self-education without the nexus
Bhattacharya [2026] ARTA 538
A Tribunal decision disallowing $31,541 of online entrepreneur courses claimed by an enterprise IT manager, on a textbook application of Hatchett.
Disputes
The DOCA that stopped paying
McCabe [2026] FCA 395
The Federal Court terminates a pooled DOCA after the funding director defaulted and left the country, clearing the way for liquidators to investigate.
Disputes
A counterfactual needs a paper trail
Collie [2026] ARTA 328
A Tribunal decision on the evidence needed to show there was no tax benefit. Claimed funds for living expenses fell short without bank records or evidence of outgoings.
Deductions
Home office occupancy expenses after Hall
Hall [2026] FCAFC 43
The Full Federal Court on why employees cannot deduct occupancy expenses for a home office and the essential character test.
Disputes
What actually happens in an ATO review or audit
How the ATO compliance process works, the difference between a review and an audit and the practical lessons for advisers. Published note.
Disputes
We lost, but nothing changes
PepsiCo [2025] HCA 30
The ATO's Decision Impact Statement on PepsiCo reads less like guidance and more like litigation strategy. What the High Court actually decided.
Disputes
Handing over your TFN is not a defence
Verma [2026] ARTA 343
A taxi driver gave his details to an acquaintance who lodged false BAS. The Tribunal upheld the 75 per cent penalty and the uplift.
Deductions
The logbook written after the fact
Afshari [2026] ARTA 159
An engineer claimed $61,286 in work-related deductions. Reconstructed logbooks, a calendar built from memory and a 70 per cent utilities claim all failed.
Disputes
Director penalty notices and the evidence trap
Wynyard [2026] NSWSC 175
A NSW decision on director penalty notices, service and why the evidentiary position matters more than the argument.
Disputes
Penalty remission built on the person
Yuen [2026] ARTA 279
A rare Tribunal decision remitting sales suppression and shortfall penalties under s 298-20 and what actually tipped the balance.
Deductions
$19 a day and seven failed grounds
Shaw [2026] FCA 197
The Federal Court rejects the Commissioner's approach to travel meal deductions claimed within the reasonable amount, on every ground argued.
Disputes
Winning the appeal was the easy part
Hicks (No 2) [2026] FCAFC 14
The Full Court on why winning taxpayers still failed to get indemnity costs and how a formal offer should be built from the start.
CGT
Technically correct, deeply unfair
Lewis [2026] ARTA 256
A Tribunal decision affirming CGT on shares sold to keep a collapsing business alive and where the system leaves no discretion.
Disputes
The ATO’s general interest charge problem, diagnosed
Tax Ombudsman report, March 2026
What the Tax Ombudsman's review of general interest charge remission found and what it means for practitioners. Published note.
Disputes
A practice statement is not the law
Yadav [2026] FCA 140
The Federal Court holds the Commissioner is not required to follow an internal practice statement when forming an opinion of fraud or evasion.
Tax agents
The renewal form is not a formality
Kumar [2026] ARTA 232
A tax agent answered No to the good fame question with an adverse tribunal finding behind him. Sixty nine breaches later, no stay of the termination.
Disputes
Told the bank one thing, told the ATO another
Endycott [2026] ARTA 214
A decision on default assessments, inconsistent accounts of the same funds and what a taxpayer has to prove.
FBT
Born to race, taxed to drive
MXSN [2026] ARTA 186
A Tribunal decision on car fringe benefits where the logbooks were fabricated after the audit began and an expert argued the Ferrari was not a passenger vehicle.
Deductions
Service fees on a mistaken assumption
S.N.A Group [2026] FCAFC 10
The Full Federal Court denies deductions for intragroup service fees paid after the written agreements had quietly expired.
Disputes
A deed does not bind the Commissioner
Ziegler [2025] FCAFC 168
The Full Federal Court reaffirms that a settlement deed cannot constrain the Commissioner's statutory powers of assessment.
Deductions
Calling it interest did not make it interest
Charles Apartments [2025] FCAFC 180
The Full Federal Court denies a $1.87 million interest deduction where the payment discharged another company's debt and protected the capital position.
Have a matter you want a straight answer on?
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