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Challenge an ATO decision

An ATO decision stands until someone displaces it, and that someone is you.

A notice has arrived from the ATO with a number on it you don’t accept. Disagreeing isn’t enough on its own: an assessment is treated as correct until you show that it isn’t, inside a window that is already running. We work out whether your position can be sustained, lodge an objection that puts the argument properly, and take it to the Administrative Review Tribunal or the Federal Court if the objection is refused. You get the decision tested rather than paid.

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A decision tested, not just paid

The assessment gets examined on its merits instead of becoming the number you owe by default.

The deadline found before it passes

Different decisions carry different time limits, and we confirm yours before anything else happens.

An argument that is evidenced

An objection that proves what it asserts is the difference between a case and a complaint.

How do you actually challenge a decision the ATO has made?

Challenging an ATO decision is a defined process, not a conversation. It starts with a formal objection: a written case setting out the facts and the law as you say they are, decided by an area of the ATO separate from the one that made the original decision. If the objection is refused, the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth) (the Act) gives you two further routes, review by the Administrative Review Tribunal or appeal to the Federal Court. The same Act puts the onus on you to prove the assessment is excessive, which is the reverse of most disputes you will ever have.

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How long do I have to object to an ATO decision?

It depends on the decision. Objections to an income tax assessment are usually due two or four years after the notice, depending on your circumstances. Many other decisions carry a window of only 60 days, so check the notice and get advice early.

What happens if the objection deadline has already passed?

You can still lodge, but you have to ask the Commissioner to accept a late objection and explain the delay. The Commissioner can refuse, and a refusal can itself be reviewed, so a closed window is a harder path rather than a closed door.

Do I have to pay the tax while I am disputing it?

Usually yes: lodging an objection does not by itself pause the debt, and the general interest charge keeps accruing. The ATO will often agree to defer recovery while a genuine dispute is on foot, and we deal with that alongside the objection.

What is the difference between the Tribunal and the Federal Court?

The Administrative Review Tribunal reviews the decision again on the facts and can substitute its own, and it is generally faster and less formal. The Federal Court hears the matter as litigation, which suits a dispute turning on a point of law or one where a precedent matters. We will advise which route fits once the objection decision comes back.

Not sure whether the decision is worth challenging?

Send us the notice and tell us what you think is wrong with it. We will tell you honestly whether the argument can be sustained, and what the window is, before you commit to anything.

You have to prove the ATO wrong, not the other way around

The ATO has made a decision that changes what you owe, and until it is displaced that decision is simply the fact of the matter. You can see the parts of it you think are wrong, but you can’t tell whether that is an argument a tribunal would accept or just your own view of your own affairs. Meanwhile the objection window is running, and it runs whether or not you have decided what to do about it.

We will read the decision and tell you whether an objection can be sustained.
We will confirm which time limit applies to your decision and what is left of it.
We will draft and lodge the objection, with the evidence the argument needs.
We will represent you at the Administrative Review Tribunal or the Federal Court if the objection is refused.

The decision came from the same organisation that collects on it

You have run your affairs carefully and taken advice when you needed it. Then an assessment, an amended assessment or a penalty notice arrives that treats a transaction from several years ago differently from the way you and your accountant treated it at the time. The amount is large enough that paying it would change what you do next, and the reasons given are short enough that you can’t see how the ATO got there. What you want to know first is whether you are entitled to argue at all, and nobody has told you that yet.

What's included in your ATO objection and review service

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An assessment of the decision and whether an objection is worth lodging.
Confirmation of the time limit that applies to your particular decision.
A written objection setting out the facts, the evidence and the legal argument.
An extension of time application where the window has already closed.
Representation at the Administrative Review Tribunal or the Federal Court.

An unchallenged decision becomes the amount you owe

Do nothing and the decision doesn’t go away, it hardens. The objection window closes, and getting back in after that means asking the Commissioner to accept a late objection and explaining a delay you can’t really explain. The debt attracts the general interest charge the whole time, and since July 2025 that charge is no longer deductible, so every month of delay costs more than it once did. Once the amount is a debt rather than a dispute, the ATO can move to collect it: a garnishee notice to your bank or your customers, a caveat over property, a departure prohibition order. The argument you were entitled to run is still a good argument. It is just no longer available to you.

How we turn a decision you dispute into a decision under review

We start by telling you where you actually stand, because an objection that can’t be sustained is worth knowing about before you spend money on it. If the argument is there, we build it properly: the facts evidenced rather than asserted, the law applied to them, and the objection drafted so the officer deciding it can follow the whole case without reconstructing it. If it is refused, we take the decision to the Tribunal or the Federal Court, where the question stops being what the ATO thinks and becomes what the law requires. You end up with the decision tested on its merits, and you know at each point what it is costing you to keep going.

How a challenge to the ATO runs

Know the argument before you make it, and the deadline before it passes.

Test the decision

We read the notice and the reasons behind it, and tell you whether there is an argument worth running and what running it will take.

Lodge your objection

We put the facts, the evidence and the law into a written objection, and we lodge it in time. The ATO then has to deal with the case you are actually making.

Tribunal or court

If the objection is refused, we take the decision to the Administrative Review Tribunal or the Federal Court and argue it there.

Someone who can tell you today whether the decision is arguable

Arguing with the ATO is unlike any other dispute you will have, because the other side made the decision, collects on it, and is presumed right until you show otherwise. Most people we see have been sitting with the notice for a fortnight, reading it again, trying to work out whether being sure they are right counts for anything.

It does, but only once it is turned into an objection that evidences what it asserts. We have a Chartered Tax Advisor with The Tax Institute on the team, a credential held for twenty-five years, and we are ISO 9001 accredited, so what happens on your file and when you hear about it are defined rather than assumed.

Our great lawyer guarantee

Six principles we hold to, whatever you bring us and however long it takes.

Take the time

We listen carefully to understand what you want to achieve, then step you through the advice and the documents.

Share our knowledge

We pass on as much as we can, so you can make your own informed decisions.

Stick to our knitting

We only do what we are good at, so you never pay for our learning.

Work as one team

Someone is always available to answer your question or point you the right way.

Fair pricing

A fixed or capped quote for advice and documents, so you do not carry the price risk.

It is your show

We are in it for a front row seat to witness your success, not for our egos.

Get the decision tested

Send us the notice and what you think is wrong with it. We will tell you whether the argument holds, what the deadline is, and what it would take to run it.

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