Part IVA - current issues paper

Peter Walmsley

Peter Walmsley took an oath of secrecy under former s.16 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) (ITAA 1936) in April 1977 and, beginning as he meant to continue, commenced work in the ATO cancelling incorrect tax assessments. A year or two later, he began work as an assessor disallowing claims of $7 for home office expenses. By the early 1980s, he was working in Appeals happily defending the disallowance of claims of $7 for home office expenses before Board of Review No 1. By the late 1980s, the claims had acquired eight or nine zeros and he was involved for the first, but by no means the last, time in futile proposals for reform of entity taxation. By the early 1990s, he was working in the then legislative services group in Strategic Research and Analysis, which led to work on various proposals, some of which were enacted (for example the family trust distribution tax, the 45-day holding period rule for franking, the capital tainting rules, s.45B, and s.177EA in the ITAA 1936). By the mid-1990s, he was a member of the Tax Counsel Network, and by around the beginning of this century, Deputy Chief Tax Counsel. He has been a member or chair of the Part IVA Panel (subsequently renamed the GAAR Panel) on and off since 2003. He was responsible, among other cases, for the ATO’s conduct of the Hart case and the Pepsi case in the High Court. - Current at 04 March 2026