KHQ Lawyers

Tax & Structuring

Special Counsel

Ben has almost 20 years’ experience in advising and representing clients in tax and related matters. His expertise spans a broad range of tax advisory, documentation and controversy work, including:

• complex business restructures, including tax and duty effective rollovers, formation of, entry into and exit from income tax consolidated groups and GST groups and demergers

• tax disputes at the audit, objection and litigation stages, including disputes with the ATO in relation to income tax, CGT and GST and with various State revenue authorities in relation to duties and payroll tax

• tax effective structuring of transactions, including business and asset sales/purchases and mergers

• tax and duty effective transfer of real estate into self-managed super funds (including advising on regulatory compliance) and out of discretionary and unit trust structures, and

• property development joint ventures, including advising on income tax, CGT, GST and duty issues and preparing documentation.

Ben acts for a wide range of clients including ASX listed companies, family groups and high net worth individuals.

Examples of matters on which Ben has worked during the course of his career include:

• advising on the income tax and duty issues in a demerger of a subsidiary from an ASX listed company and effecting the demerger, including related corporate law matters

• successfully obtaining a corporate consolidation duty exemption for a significant landholder undergoing a corporate restructure

• advising on and documenting the restructure of a group of related companies into a single income tax consolidated group, including providing tax advice to the board and shareholders

• having tax assessments in the amount of several million dollars withdrawn for the beneficiaries of a trust by identifying technical deficiencies in the assessments, and

• advising on and implementing the restructure of a very large privately held business conducted via a group of trusts into a consolidated group of companies, in preparation for listing.

Earlier in his career, Ben practised general commercial law where he gained significant experience advising on, documenting and negotiating a broad range of commercial agreements.

Ben is a Chartered Tax Adviser, accredited by The Tax Institute.