A preeminent King’s Counsel and Chartered Tax Adviser with an Australia-wide practice, Mark specialises in revenue and trust law.
Mark has provided complex advice to, and appeared for, commonwealth and state revenue authorities, Australia’s leading corporate groups, high net wealth individuals, as well as foreign investors in relation to proposed and completed domestic and cross-border transactions (including in estate and family law contexts). He accepts direct briefs from accounting firms to advise, to settle objections and private ruling applications, and he represents parties at Australian Taxation Office interviews and before the GAAR Panel. He is also briefed to appear before various alternative dispute resolution forums on behalf of his clients.
With chambers in both Brisbane and Sydney, Mark is an active proponent of tax reform and has recently assisted the Queensland Bar Association with its submission on the re-write of the Trusts Act 1973. He regularly delivers papers before legal and taxation industry forums in Australia and internationally, and numerous papers he has prepared have been published in taxation journals and law reviews.
Before being called to the Bar, Mark worked as an Associate to Justice Hartigan of the Federal Court, at PriceWaterhouse and at top-tier law firm, Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst). Having previously lectured at Bond University lecturing in contract law, Mark has maintained his interest in academia, teaching post-graduate subjects in trust law and taxation.
Mark holds a Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford and a Doctor of Juridical Studies from the University of Sydney. His Doctoral Thesis concerned the rights of beneficiaries in a capital gains tax context and his suggested tax reforms formed the basis for the Tax Institute of Australia, the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants’ submission to the Tax Law Improvement Project. He also holds a Bachelor of Laws (with honours) and a Bachelor of Business (Accountancy) (with distinction) from the Queensland University of Technology.
Rankings
Doyle’s Guide to Leading Tax Barristers 2021 & 2022
Chambers and Partners Tax: The Bar In Australia 2021
Select Cases
Commissioner of Taxation v PricewaterhouseCoopers [2022] FCA 278
Commissioner of Taxation v Burswood Nominees Limited as trustee for Burswood Property Trust [2021] FCAFC 151
Hyder v Commissioner of Taxation [2022] FCA 264
Commissioner of Taxation v Tomaras [2018] HCA 62