ATO Disputes · Sydney & NSW
Are you under audit, have you been issued with an amended assessment, or are you watching the clock run down on a director penalty notice? With Law Flow you get a NSW solicitor running your matter directly, with AI-assisted document review supporting efficient, lawyer-led management of your ATO dispute.
Is this you?
Any of these apply? A free 30 minute consultation to discuss your situation, identify apparent urgent deadlines and scope the next steps. Detailed advice may require document review. Call 0480 893 317 or request a call back.
Scope of work
Every matter is run by a NSW registered solicitor with Federal Court experience. AI compresses the parts of the work that traditional firms bill by the hour.
Time critical
Tax disputes are won and lost on dates. Several of these cannot be extended, and some of them carry personal exposure for directors.
The 21 day period generally runs from when the ATO posts or leaves the notice, not when you read it. A director penalty can already have arisen before the notice is issued. The available remission options depend on the liability and reporting history, and appointing an administrator or liquidator will not remit every penalty. Obtain advice immediately.
Objection periods vary by assessment type and can run to two or four years. Get the correct period identified early, because a late objection needs the Commissioner to agree to consider it.
A garnishee notice bites on your bank account or your customers straight away. Fast negotiation or challenge is the only route to releasing the funds.
Once an objection decision is disallowed there is a limited window to take the matter to the Administrative Review Tribunal or the Federal Court.
Lawyer-led, AI-assisted
ATO disputes are document disputes. Years of bank statements, ledgers, invoices and correspondence have to be reconciled against the Commissioner position. That reconciliation is exactly what traditional firms bill hundreds of hours for.
Our systems scan thousands of pages of statements and ledgers to build the transaction narrative, so your solicitor starts from the analysis rather than from the paperwork.
Rulings, determinations and case law are cross-checked at speed, so the objection answers every point in the position paper rather than only the obvious ones.
Strategy, privilege calls and negotiation with the ATO stay with a senior lawyer. The volume work does not get billed at senior rates.
We use AI-assisted tools to support legal research, document review and initial drafting, with the work checked by the solicitor responsible for your matter. Combined with low office overheads, this helps us work efficiently and keep costs proportionate.
The time and cost involved depend on your matter’s complexity, documents and scope. We explain the proposed work and fees upfront, with fixed-fee options where the scope allows.
Tell us what you are dealing with and we will explain the proposed work and the fees before anything starts.
Book A ConsultationHow it works
A free 30 minute consultation with Tristan, Principal Solicitor, to discuss your situation, identify apparent urgent deadlines and scope the next steps. Detailed advice may require document review.
You get a written scope and a price for the next stage before any work starts. No open-ended retainer, no surprise invoices.
The documents, ledgers and authorities are processed at speed, then reviewed by your solicitor. This is the stage traditional firms bill hardest.
Advice, negotiation, drafting and advocacy are done by the lawyer with carriage of your file, and you deal with him directly throughout.
Cost
Tax disputes have a reputation for open-ended bills. We scope the work in stages so you know the price of the next step before you commit to it.
A free 30 minute consultation to discuss your situation, identify apparent urgent deadlines and scope the next steps. Detailed advice may require document review.
Objections, DPN responses and remission applications are commonly quoted as a fixed fee.
Tribunal and Federal Court work is quoted stage by stage so you keep control of the spend.
Your lawyer
Tristan Burt
Principal Solicitor
Tristan is the person who listens to your situation, understands your goals and builds the strategy. He is a NSW registered solicitor with years of experience from top-tier firms across Australia, Asia and Europe, and has built Law Flow’s AI systems to amplify his judgement, not replace it. He is the ultimate decision maker on your matter.
Common questions
Often you need both, and your accountant should stay involved. A lawyer becomes necessary once the dispute turns adversarial, because legal professional privilege, objection drafting, tribunal and court appearances, and personal liability under a director penalty notice are legal questions rather than accounting ones.
A garnishee notice can often be reduced, released or replaced with a payment arrangement, particularly where it is strangling a trading business or where the underlying assessment is under genuine challenge. Speed matters, because the notice captures funds as they arrive.
Nothing is stayed by ignoring it. Once the period on the notice expires the Commissioner can recover the amount from you personally, including by issuing a bankruptcy notice. Where lodgment was more than three months late the notice may be a lockdown DPN, which removes some of the options otherwise available.
No. Law Flow uses AI through business grade services governed by terms under which client prompts, documents and outputs are not used to train or improve AI services. We add lawyer review, access controls, redaction tooling and restrictions on what can be submitted. Our approach follows the Law Society of NSW Statement on the Use of AI in Australian Legal Practice.
Consultations are usually available within a business day, and urgent DPN and garnishee matters are prioritised. Tell us the date on the notice when you make contact so we can triage it correctly.
Next step
Thirty minutes with the solicitor who would run your matter. Bring the notice or assessment so we can discuss your situation, identify apparent urgent deadlines and scope the next steps.
