- Home
- Commercial Law
- Tax Disputes & Litigation
Tax Dispute Lawyers in Melbourne
Legal representation for businesses, directors and trustees in disputes with the Australian Taxation Office. Audits and information requests, amended assessments, penalties and interest, objections, Administrative Review Tribunal reviews, Federal Court appeals, director penalty notices and recovery action.
We act once the dispute has started
We act for taxpayers in contested matters with the Commissioner. Not tax planning, not structuring, not compliance. Disputes.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. Your accountant knows your affairs better than any lawyer will, and in an audit they are usually the most valuable person in the room. What changes when a matter becomes contested is that the questions stop being accounting questions. What must be proved, by whom, by when, what is privileged, what the Commissioner is entitled to see, and what happens to the debt while the argument runs. Those are legal questions with statutory answers, and they decide the outcome.
We work alongside your accountant rather than around them.
Managing information requests and what is actually produced.
Challenging the assessment and proving the right figure.
Shortfall penalties, remission and objections.
The step that preserves every right that follows.
Review and appeal, run by the people who advised on the objection.
Personal liability, and the 21 days that decide it.
The burden of proof is on you
Most people assume a tax dispute works like any other dispute: the party making the claim has to prove it. Tax is the opposite, and this single fact shapes everything else.
If you apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal, section 14ZZK of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 puts the burden of proving the case on you. Not on the Commissioner. And it is not enough to show the assessment is wrong. The section requires you to prove that the assessment is excessive or otherwise incorrect and what the assessment should have been. Section 14ZZO imposes the same burden if the matter goes to the Federal Court instead. Producing the notice of assessment is, under section 350-10 in Schedule 1, conclusive evidence that the assessment was properly made, and outside a Part IVC challenge, conclusive evidence that its amounts are correct.
It is not enough to prove the Commissioner is wrong. You have to prove the right number.
The second half is just as unforgiving. Lodging an objection does not pause the debt. Sections 14ZZM and 14ZZR provide that the tax may be recovered as if no review were pending, and as if no appeal were pending. The Commissioner can keep collecting while you dispute. There is one narrow exception worth knowing: for a small business taxation assessment decision, the Tribunal can make an order under section 32(2) of the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 affecting the implementation of the decision.
Put together, these rules explain why tax disputes are won or lost early. The evidence needed to discharge that burden is gathered during the audit, long before anyone files anything.
The burden sits with you
On review or appeal you must prove the assessment is excessive or incorrect and establish what it should have been. That is an evidential job, and the material that discharges it is usually created or lost during the audit.
Your grounds are locked in
Sections 14ZZK and 14ZZO limit you to the grounds stated in your objection unless the Tribunal or the court orders otherwise. The objection is not a formality on the way to the real argument. It is the document that defines the argument.
The debt keeps running
Disputing does not suspend recovery. Interest continues, and under section 26-5(1A) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 the general interest charge and the shortfall interest charge are not deductible. The cost of being right slowly is real.
Built for the burden you will have to discharge
Fix the position before it hardens
In an audit, what is produced and how it is explained becomes the record you will later have to argue from. We advise on the response, on privilege, and on which issues are genuinely worth contesting.
Write the objection as the case
Because the grounds bind you, the objection is drafted as the statement of the case, with the evidence identified against each ground, not as a holding letter.
Review, appeal, or resolve
If the objection decision is unfavourable, section 14ZZ gives a choice between an ART review and a Federal Court appeal. The same team that ran the objection runs whichever is chosen, and the debt position is managed in parallel throughout.
Where tax disputes become personal
A company's tax problem does not always stay the company's problem.
Director penalty notices
Under Division 269 in Schedule 1, unpaid PAYG withholding, GST and super guarantee can become a director's personal liability. Section 269-25 stops the Commissioner recovering until 21 days after the notice is given, and section 269-30 remits the penalty if the obligation is dealt with in that window. The trap is section 269-25(4): the notice counts as given when the Commissioner posts it, not when you read it.
Corporate insolvencyPenalties on top of the tax
A false or misleading statement attracts an administrative penalty under section 284-75. The base penalty amount under section 284-90 is 25% of the shortfall for failing to take reasonable care, 50% for recklessness and 75% for intentional disregard. Which label attaches is contestable, and the difference is money.
Corporate lawWhen the adviser was the cause
Where a shortfall or penalty traces back to an accountant's or adviser's error, there may be a claim in that direction as well as a dispute with the Commissioner. The two need to be run with each other in mind.
Professional negligenceA straight read on whether this is worth fighting
Not every assessment is worth disputing, and we will say so. Initial consultations are confidential and run by senior practitioners who will tell you what the evidence can actually support.
Book a consultationThe ART, not the AAT
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal was abolished and replaced by the Administrative Review Tribunal on 14 October 2024. A great deal of tax material still refers to the AAT, including guidance that otherwise looks current.
The Taxation Administration Act now defines "Tribunal" as the Administrative Review Tribunal, and the Part IVC provisions are written accordingly. If you are working from an article or a template that talks about lodging with the AAT, it predates the change.
How long you have to object
The objection period comes from section 14ZW and depends on the decision. For an income tax assessment it is generally two years for taxpayers covered by items 1, 2, 3 or 3A of the table in section 170(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, and four years otherwise.
Many other taxation decisions carry a 60 day period, and where an amended assessment is involved the period can run from the amendment. The section is genuinely intricate, so the date should be confirmed against the specific notice rather than assumed.
Trusted on the matters that mattered most
After speaking to many law firms, I felt that getting legal help was not for me. But my view completely changed after speaking with Special Counsel Peter Wood. He was knowledgeable, generous, kind, and genuinely caring. Peter listened with compassion and made me feel supported during a difficult time.
Highly professional, compassionate staff with a high level of knowledge and competence. Reliable, reassuring and there when you need them. Highly recommend.
Absolutely brilliant firm! Sarah was handling our matter and was incredibly thorough, communicative and clear from start to finish. Pentana Stanton really stood out as competent and integral in getting my matter resolved. I would highly recommend this firm.
Questions about ATO disputes
Last reviewed August 2026. Statutory references are current to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth) Compilation No. 225 (1 July 2026), the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) Compilation No. 192 (1 July 2026), the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth) Compilation No. 266 (1 July 2026) and the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 (Cth) Compilation No. 5 (18 May 2026). This page is general information, not legal advice.
The burden is yours, so the preparation matters.
If you are facing an ATO audit, an amended assessment, a penalty or a director penalty notice, the earliest advice is the most valuable. Arrange a consultation and we will give you a straight read on what can be proved, what it will cost to prove it, and whether the dispute is worth running.
See also: Corporate Insolvency, Corporate Law, Commercial Litigation, Professional Negligence.
