Justin Harty

Justin is a tax lawyer who helps businesses navigate complex tax issues arising from transactions, restructures, disputes and day-to-day operations. He advises on both federal and state taxes and is known for providing commercially pragmatic solutions to technically challenging matters. Justin’s expertise includes advising on matters relating to:

• income tax
• Capital Gains Tax
• international tax
• GST
• Fringe Benefits Tax
• Superannuation Guarantee
• stamp duty
• land tax, and
• payroll tax.

Justin also advises on the tax aspects of corporate and real property transactions, Australian Taxation Office and State Revenue Office reviews and audits, and voluntary disclosures.

Examples of Justin’s recent work include:

• Providing tax advice to the founders of Locomote travel group regarding their reacquisition of the group from Travelport in 2021 through to their sell-down to Webjet in 2025. This included tax advice in relation to preserving carried-forward tax losses, income tax consolidation and deconsolidation, the commercial debt forgiveness rules, scrip-for-scrip rollover relief, the CGT value shifting rules and employee share schemes.
• Providing tax advice to the founders of CTRL:cyber in relation to their sell-down to Pemba Capital Partners, including tax advice on the implementation of a complex pre-completion debt restructure.
• In the course of negotiations between senior executives and a government employer in relation to an employment law dispute, providing tax advice to the senior executives on the terms of settlement, resulting in tax savings exceeding $1 million, as ratified by a confirmatory private binding ruling issued by the ATO.
• Successfully managing various ATO audits, including an audit of a high-net-worth private property development group in which the ATO primarily focused on outgoings incurred to, and income derived by, related entities, distributions to loss trusts within the group and unpaid present entitlements. The tax issues included income tax, CGT, GST, Division 7A and section 100A. A highly favourable outcome for the taxpayer was achieved.

Justin commenced his legal career in property and corporate law, before specialising in tax. He holds a Master of Tax from the University of Melbourne.