Legal Resources | Links | Sydney Tax Lawyers

Here you can find links to various organisations and subscription services related to tax.

Tax News

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters (ATP) has a comprehensive range of online tax publications, including Latest Tax News and Weekly Tax Bulletin. You will need to be subscribed to their service to see full text.

Tax Organisations

Taxpayers Australia specialises in providing technical tax and superannuation information through a wide range of products and services, including seminars, webinars, discussion groups, essential publications and more.
You will need to subscribe to become a member for benefits.

Tax Analysts

Founded in 1970 as a non-profit organization, Tax Analysts is a provider of tax news and analysis for the global community. You will need to subscribe to become a member for benefits.

Taxation Institute of Australia

Taxation Institute of Australia (TIA) is the leading educator and professional tax association in Australia and represents the interests and opinions of more than 11,000 specialist practitioners from lawyers, accountants, tax agents and academics. Although there is a substantial amount of material available free, subscribers benefit the most.

National Tax and Accountants’ Association

The National Tax and Accountants’ Association Ltd. (NTAA) is a not for profit association dedicated to assisting accountants, tax agents, tax advisers, and businesses in resolving their tax issues.
Formed in 1992, the NTAA currently has over 9,000 member firms subscribing to the NTAA.

Superannuation

APRA

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) oversees banks, credit unions, building societies, general insurance and reinsurance companies, life insurance, friendly societies and most members of the superannuation industry. APRA is funded largely by the industries that it supervises. It was established on 1 July 1998. APRA is the regulatory body which oversees complying superannuation funds other than self managed superannuation funds (note the Australian Taxation Office oversees self managed superannuation funds. You can find APRA Circulars and Guidelines outlining superannuation policy here. You can also find a list of approved trustees and Superannuation Legislation here.

Australian Taxation Office – Superannuation

These pages on the Australian Taxation Office webs site contain general information for all superannuation funds. It also provides tax advice for self managed superannuation funds.

Federal Government – Taxation

Australian Taxation Office

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is the statutory authority responsible for the administration of Australia’s taxation system and is the government’s principal revenue collection agency.

This website gives you access to various ATO forms, press releases, information booklets and a legal database which holds all ATO tax rulings, ATO interpretative decisions, private binding rulings, case decision summaries and ATO practice statements .

The website also provides you with relevant tax and superannuation legislation and cases.

Australian Government Re:think Better Tax, Better Australia

This website is managed by the Tax White Paper Task Force within the Department of Treasury and discusses tax reform. It provides access to Discussion Papers, for example, the Treasurer opened the conversation on tax by releasing the tax discussion paper on 30 March 2015.

Board of Taxation of Australia

The Board of Taxation is a non-statutory advisory body charged with contributing a business and broader community perspective to improving the design of taxation laws and their operation.
The Board is tasked with advising the Treasurer on improving the general integrity and functioning of the taxation system and commissioning research and other studies on tax matters approved or referred to it by the Treasurer.
This website contains press releases, publications and speeches.

Australian Business Register

ABR Online is an online database that contains some of the publicly available information provided by businesses when they register for an Australian Business Number (ABN). You can register for an ABN, change ABN details and check to see if an ABN so provided is a genuine ABN.

Department of Treasury

The Commonwealth Department of Treasury site has copies of key tax policy papers. You will find the Budget papers here. Treasury Media Releases and Speeches can be found here as well. There are also links to the Treasurer’s Home Page, the Assistant Treasurer’s Home Page and the Minister for Small Business’ Home Page. These home pages have relevant Minister’s Media Releases. Very often tax and superannuation law is introduced via a Treasurer’s Media Release.

Federal Government – Various Departments

Federal Government

This website provides links to lots of Australian government websites as well as selected state and territory resources. Under the topic Benefits, Payments and Services it provides links to for example, Centrelink, the Department of Human Services, Department of Social Services.

Parliament of Australia

Copies of Bills and attaching Explanatory Memoranda that are currently before Parliament can be found on this website. This site also tells you when the House of Representatives and the Senate are sitting and when Bills will be debated.

Business Entry Point

This website provides Government assistance for running a business, particularly a small business.

This website offers simple and convenient access to all of the government information, forms and services you need. It provides essential information on planning, starting and growing your business as well as referrals to assistance programmes such as the Entrepreneurs’ Infrastructure Programme and the R&D Tax Incentive.

From 1 July 2014, the following websites have been merged into a consolidated, single resource for business:

Many of the programmes and services that were previously available on these websites are now located in Grants and Assistance Finder on business.gov.au.

Australian Government – Attorney-General’s Department

The Attorney-General’s Department delivers programs and policies to maintain and improve Australia’s law and justice framework, strengthen our national security and emergency management, and provide support for arts and culture.

Federal Government – Business Regulators

Australian Securities & Investments Commission

The home page for Australian Securities and Investments Commission provides company information and relevant company forms.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (‘ACCC’) is an independent Commonwealth statutory authority whose role is to enforce the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and a range of additional legislation, promoting competition, fair trading and regulating national infrastructure for the benefit of all Australians. The website has information on small businesses and franchises. The website also has information on GST and pricing.

ASX

This website holds the ASX Listing Rules and information on the Australian Stock Exchange.

State Government

NSW Parliament

Provides access to New South Wales legislation and to Bills and Explanatory Memoranda.

Revenue (NSW)

Revenue (NSW) administers State taxation, collects revenue, and develops policy and implements legislation relating to State taxation. The website provides information on stamp duty, land tax and pay-roll tax. The site also has a calculator where you can estimate duty payable on a number of common transactions.

NSW Land Registry Services

NSW Land Registry Services is a division of the Office of Finance and Services, and is the key provider of land information services in New South Wales. The website has a chart of lodging fees and downloadable forms such as transfers.

NSW Department of Justice

This website provides resources for lawyers and information to the general public about law and justice in NSW. You can find out about the Courts and tribunals system from this website.

NSW Fair Trading

The role of the NSW Fair Trading is to safeguard consumer rights and to advise business and traders on fair ethical practice. The website provides information on state consumer protection law.

NSW Trade & Investment – Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing

The NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) is a branch within NSW Trade & Investment and is accountable for the development, implementation and integrity of the overall regulatory framework across liquor, registered clubs, charitable fundraising and gambling activities in NSW.
This website provides information on how to form a charity or non-profit club or association.

Litigation

High Court of Australia

The website of the High Court of Australia provides information about the High Court, its history, current practice and reasons for judgments. Most of the High Court’s work is hearing of appeals against decisions of other courts. Decisions of the High Court on appeals are final. There are no further appeals once a matter has been decided by the High Court, and the decision is binding on all other courts throughout Australia.

Federal Court of Australia

The website of the Federal Court of Australia provides information about the Court, its history, current practice and reasons for judgments. The Federal Court hears tax appeals.

Family Court of Australia

The Federal Court of Australia deals with family law disputes. It hears appeals from decisions in family law matters of the Federal Magistrates Court. The Family Court of Australia website provides a family law information service, legal resources, corporate information, and student resource material, information for children and young people and publications and media releases.

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) is a body which provides independent review of a wide range of administrative decisions made by the Australian Commonwealth government and some non-government bodies. This includes review of Commissioner of Taxation decisions. The website provides information for AAT applicant and as well as AAT decisions.

Supreme Court of New South Wales

The Supreme Court is the highest court in NSW. It has unlimited civil jurisdiction and hears the most serious criminal matters. It provides independent review of various State taxation decisions of the Office of State Revenue and appeals from decisions of the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal.

New South Wales Civil & Administrative Tribunal

The New South Wales Civil & Administrative Tribunal NSWCAT is the one-stop-shop for specialist tribunal services in NSW. NCAT deals with a broad and diverse range of matters, from tenancy issues and building works, to decisions on guardianship and administrative review of government decisions. The work of the Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division within NCAT includes the review of administrative decisions made by NSW Government agencies and resolution of discrimination matters. This includes review of various State taxation decisions of the Office of State Revenue.

Commonwealth Ombudsman

The Commonwealth Ombudsman can investigate complaints about the administrative actions of Australian Government departments and agencies. The Commonwealth Ombudsman deals also with complaints concerning Freedom of information (FOI) or Public Interest Disclosures (PID) issues relating to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or Tax Practitioners Board (TPD).

Inspector-General of Taxation

The office of Inspector-General of Taxation (IGT) was set up as an independent statutory agency in 2003. Accordingly, it is independent from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and Tax Practitioners Board (TPB).

The IGT can assist you to address your complaints about the administrative actions of ATO and the TPB. The IGT also seeks to improve the administration of the tax system for the benefit of all taxpayers by undertaking broader reviews and making recommendations to the ATO and to the Government.

Legislation

Austlii

Australasian Legal Information Institute has searchable databases in case law, Commonwealth and State legislation and also has an index to Australian legal material.

ComLaw

ComLaw is an alternative to Austlii for Commonwealth legislation. ComLaw has the most complete and up-to-date collection of Commonwealth legislation and includes notices from the Commonwealth Government Notices Gazette from 1 October 2012, Bills, Administrative Arrangements Orders, Applied Law Compilations, Prerogative and miscellaneous instruments.

Capital Monitors

Capital Monitor is a subscription service through LexisNexis and provides parliamentary, political, legislative, regulatory and judicial news and information to its subscribers almost as soon as it is available. The team are located in the Press Gallery within Parliament House in Canberra where they filter news and information before distributing it by e-mail to subscribers according to their monitoring briefs.
All content is updated on Capital Monitor’s comprehensive database which allows you to conduct keyword search anytime, on any jurisdiction and for content from 1996 onwards.

Lawlex

Lawlex has a database of Australian legislative and regulatory information and research, including newsfeeds, Corporate Law Bulletin.

Legal and Accounting Organisations

Law Foundation of NSW

The Law and Justice Foundation of NSW is an independent, non-profit organisation whose core activities are research into the operation of the legal system.

Australian Law Reform Commission

The Commission’s main focus is on the reform of Commonwealth laws and legal processes, however its work is wide-ranging; from technical aspects of the law to questions of broad social policy. The website contains information about inquiries past and present as well as news and publications relevant to the reform commission.

Law Society of NSW

The website has links to lawyers practicing in NSW, legal resources and provides access to the Law Society journal and library.

New South Wales Bar Association

The New South Wales Bar Association is a voluntary association of practising barristers. The website provides information about the association and its work.

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand

This is the professional development website for chartered accountants.

CPA Australia

CPA Australia is a professional organisation for certified practising accountants. It provides services to members including education, training, technical support and advocacy.

Major Gateways

University of Sydney Law Library Web Guide

This page on the University of Sydney Law Library website has links to web resources and specialist sites.

FindLaw

The “learn about the law” section of the FindLaw website contains Australian legal information on a number of different legal areas.

Thomson Reuters Australia Tax and Accounting

Tax and Accounting is a Thomson Reuters online tax and accounting solution.

Wolters Kluwer, CCH

Wolters CCH is a leading provider of information services for professionals across the globe.
CCH Iknow has legal commentary, news, tools and source material in a number of practice areas including accounting, audit, companies, duties, FBT, financial planning, GST, income tax, international tax, land tax, payroll tax, reporting and superannuation. You will need to subscribe to become a member for benefits.