Tax Investigations & Disputes

The Australian Tax Office (‘ATO’), State and Territory revenue offices and other regulators are laser focused on bringing in more tax and clamping down on avoidance. With the regulatory regime in constant flux, we have seen a steady increase in tax disputes and investigations.

The ATO is using increasingly sophisticated techniques to identify potential tax avoidance including ‘data matching’ – a system that measures data from third parties against your tax return and works backwards to check whether your reported tax position is valid. The burden of proof lies with the taxpayer and there is very little room for error.

The right approach for your business

Understanding your commercial imperatives underpins our strategy when dealing with investigations and disputes, helping us to better identify your ‘non-negotiables’ and where there may be concessions allowing for early resolution or to minimise penalties.

You can rest assured that if you find yourself under investigation by the ATO, we have the technical expertise and proven track record to support you from early risk identification through to resolution. The sooner you engage with us, the more likely you will get a positive result.  

Our disputes work covers most areas of tax law including loss utilisation, Division 7A, trust matters and most international matters.  We advise on relatively simple disputes through to high-value complex disputes, and work with small businesses through to large multi-national organisations.

Proven track record

In recent years, Baumgartners has delivered some outstanding wins on behalf of our clients, resulting in potential savings of tens of millions of dollars in tax, interest and penalties. We have developed strong relationships with various teams within the ATO, meaning we understand what they are looking for and can often help guide our clients towards a mutually agreed resolution.

Our tax experts keep abreast of trends, legislation, regulatory updates and case law, to ensure that we know when, and how best, to challenge the ATO on a particular issue.

Our recent tax disputes work includes:

• A large property and hospitality group: Successfully engaged with the ATO to obtain relief from deemed dividends on non-complying private company loans to the extent of over $70 million.
• A significant employer: Acted on behalf of a significant employer with over 2,000 employees in a Superannuation Guarantee audit, resulting in no penalties from the ATO despite deficiencies in the employer’s payments.
• Beneficiaries of a deceased estate: An individual passed away with a large number of unlodged historic tax returns and several million in unpaid tax.  Successfully negotiated with the ATO for a remission of over $700,000 in general interest charges on behalf of the estate.

We can help you with:

• Tax audits and investigations
• Next 5,000 streamline assurance reviews
• Comprehensive risk reviews
• Proactive risk management
• Early resolution