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John Walker

John Walker

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Jones Day

Jones Day

Australia

1

Tax

Jones Day’s tax practice is a leading adviser to major Australian and multinational clients, covering high-stakes disputes, ATO reviews, and complex transactional matters. The team provides expertise across international taxation, transfer pricing, corporate restructures, M&A, private equity, and anti-avoidance work. Niv Tadmore heads the practice, specialising in cross-border tax and business reorganisations, while John Walker focuses on transactional and capital markets tax. Benjamin Lancaster is recognised for his work on transfer pricing and international dispute resolution, giving the team full-spectrum capabilities across corporate and regulatory tax matters.
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Profile
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Profile

Career

John Walker focuses on the tax aspects of M&A, spin-offs, takeovers, funds, corporate and debt restructurings, and capital raising transactions for Australian and U.S. multinationals conducting business in Australia. He has been recognized as one of Australia's leading tax lawyers in numerous editions of Best Lawyers, Chambers Asia-Pacific, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, Euromoney's International Tax Review's World Tax, and the Tax Directors Handbook. He also has won "Lawyers Weekly Tax Lawyer of the Year."

John also deals with the Australian Tax Office on a regular basis in the context of private and class rulings, settling outstanding tax liabilities, industry risk reviews, and tax policy initiatives. John is a lecturer in the Sydney University LL.M. program, co-chair of the American Chamber of Commerce Tax Committee, and author of the Bloomberg Tax publication, Business Operations in Australia. He is a chartered tax advisor with the Taxation Institute of Australia and a member of the Law Society of New South Wales.

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Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘They have a strong tax controversy practice in the U.S. and in Australia.’

    ‘I've known John Walker for almost two decades, and he is a phenomenal tax practitioner in the Australian market. He will be a real boost to the tax capability that the firm has in Australian and Asia more broadly.’

    'Impressive innovation and professionalism.'

Key clients

  • Alcoa Woolworths Group Limited Doordash Coronado Global Resources Inc. MUFG Bank, Ltd Ellerston Capital and NOJA Power Jarden Australia Manildra Group AMAL Asset Management

Work highlights

Representing Alcoa in relation to a significant transfer pricing issue related to sales of alumina; the total reported exposure of approximately AUD1.4bn is one of the largest potential exposures that a multinational group has faced in recent times.
Represented Woolworths Group Limited in its acquisition of certain assets of Takeoff Technologies, Inc.
Acting as the primary tax advisor for DoorDash in Australia, working on a variety of complex and strategically important projects including successfully settling a GST audit, restructuring its Australian operations and intra-group supply contracts, executing various capital raising programmes and managing the application of a variety of international tax reforms relevant to our new anti-hybrid rules, country by country reporting and Pillar 1 and 2.