16th International ATAX Tax Administration Conference:

On 1 March 2024 Mr Rob Heferen took up his role as Commissioner of Taxation to lead the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). Rob has dedicated his career to the Australian Public Service for the last 35 years, beginning in 1989 as a graduate at the Australian Customs Service. Over 35 years, he has accumulated diverse experience across policy development and program delivery in a range of portfolios, as well as representing Australia in international forums including the UN, the IEA and the OECD. For almost 20 years Rob’s interest and expertise in economics and tax policy led him to various roles in the Australian Taxation Office and Commonwealth Treasury, including leading the Secretariat for the Australia’s Future Tax System Review (the Henry Tax Review) and culminating in his role as Deputy Secretary, Revenue Group at the Commonwealth Treasury between 2011-2016, with responsibility for tax policy, tax legislation and revenue forecasting.

Rob’s other Senior Executive roles include Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; Deputy Secretary of Higher Education, Research and International in the Department of Education, Skills and Employment; Deputy Secretary of Energy at the Department of the Environment and Energy (where he served as Australia’s representative on the International Energy Agency’s Governing Board); and Deputy Secretary of Indigenous Affairs at the Department Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. 

Rob is a proven leader of people, with an open, collaborative and authentic style and strong record of achievement in leading organisations to help shape and deliver on Government priorities.

Rob has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Tasmania, and a Graduate Diploma of Economics from the Australian National University. 

Peter Mersi was appointed Commissioner and Chief Executive of Inland Revenue in July 2022.

Prior to this, Peter was the Secretary and Chief Executive for Transport (2016-2022), Chief Executive of Land Information New Zealand (2012 – 2016) and spent six months as the Acting Secretary and Chief Executive of the Department of Internal Affairs (2011-2012).

Peter has held senior leadership roles in Inland Revenue and the Treasury, where he spent 14 years primarily working on social policy and the public management system. He has also worked for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of Labour, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Bank of New Zealand.

Peter has an economics degree from Victoria University of Wellington.

Along with Gaye Searancke, the Chief Executive of Land Information New Zealand, Peter is the Co-Chair of Papa Pounamu, an initiative by Public Sector Chief Executives to support and grow diversity and inclusion in the public sector.

Ruth has recently been appointed to the role of Inspector-General of Taxation and Taxation Ombudsman. This is an independent statutory role contributing to the improvement of the administration of taxation and superannuation and supporting taxpayers and tax practitioners with resolution of their complaints to the ATO or Tax Practitioners’ Board.

Ruth brings a wealth of experience in tax, public administration, complaints management and dispute resolution, having spent more than 30 years in various senior leadership positions across the public sector in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK).

Ruth was previously a Director General and Tax Commissioner of His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in the UK, Head of Profession for operational delivery in the UK Civil Service and Deputy CEO of Jobcentre Plus, the UK employment service and welfare service delivery agency.

In moving to Australia, Ruth joined EY Advisory as the lead partner in Human Services, providing professional services to Government and community sector clients, including publishing guidance on complaints management and supporting the National Redress Scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

Most recently, Ruth spent over three years in NSW Government, as a Deputy Secretary at Education and then leading the delivery of public sector reform in the NSW Premier’s Department.

Ruth was awarded the CBE in the UK for her public service in reducing unemployment during the GFC.

Penelope Tuck is Professor of Accounting, Public Finance and Policy at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham UK. Prior to joining Birmingham Business School, she has held academic positions at Warwick Business School and at the Universities of Southampton and Buckingham. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and a Chartered Tax Advisor. Penelope’s research areas are accounting in a public policy context, and taxation policy and practice from a social and institutional perspective. She has published in leading accounting journals including the British Accounting Review, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Accounting Organizations and Society, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, and Accounting and Business Research.  Previously Penelope was Head of the Department of Accounting and Director of Research for the Birmingham Business School.

Professor Alarie's work explores how artificial intelligence can be applied to legal and tax problems. He teaches tax law and conducts research on the potential impacts of AI on legal practice and tax administration.

In 2015, Professor Alarie co-founded Blue J, an AI-powered tax technology company. Under his leadership, Blue J has developed Ask Blue J, a state-of-the-art generative AI platform lauded by Tax Notes as "TaxGPT." Ask Blue J is acclaimed for its unparalleled accuracy and ease of use. Ask Blue J has been adopted by several of the world's leading tax advisory firms and is widely-regarded as the most reliable LLM-based tax research tool. Ask Blue J currently covers North American tax law (Canada and the US), and will soon become available for the UK.

An educational documentary, The A.I. Taxman (2022), recounts the early story of Blue J and outlines a vision of how artificial intelligence is going to affect tax law in the coming decades.

In an award-winning book, The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better (2023), Professor Alarie (with co-author Abdi Aidid) argues that AI has the potential to revolutionize the legal landscape, making it radically more efficient and accessible.

Professor Alarie is a regular contributor to Tax Notes, where he explores the ethical and practical implications of AI in tax practice. He is also a frequently invited keynote speaker, often addressing academic and professional groups around the world on AI, taxation, and the future of law.

Kerrie Sadiq is a Professor at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia. She holds a BCom, LLB (Hons), LLM, and PhD. Originally qualifying as a Barrister at Law, Kerrie is currently a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) as designated by the Taxation Institute of Australia, a CPA, and a CA. Kerrie is an international tax scholar specifically known for her work in base erosion and profit shifting, transfer pricing, thin capitalisation, tax expenditures, and capital gains tax. She is co-editor of the Australian Tax Review, an internationally recognized leading academic tax journal, and is an author of over 100 publications in both Australian and international journals and books. Previous visiting appointments include universities in South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, and Austria. Throughout her career, she has contributed to Australian Government Senate Inquiries and Board of Taxation Reviews of tax policy. Kerrie is currently undertaking a four-year research-focused Future Fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council.

Jeremy Hirschhorn was appointed to the Second Commissioner role from 16 April 2020. He has overall responsibility for the ATO’s Client Engagement Group, which fosters willing participation in Australia’s tax and super systems through well-designed client experiences.

Jeremy has more than 20 years' experience in roles managing complex tax matters.

As Deputy Commissioner of Public Groups & International from April 2015, Jeremy was responsible for ensuring that the largest Australian and multinational companies were meeting their corporate tax obligations and providing the Australian community with confidence that these large companies were being held to account.

Jeremy also worked as Chief Tax Counsel, with responsibility for the provision of the ATO’s legal advice in relation to interpretation of the tax and super laws, when he joined the ATO in August 2014.

Prior to joining the ATO, Jeremy was a senior partner in KPMG’s tax practice.

Jeremy holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from the University of NSW. He is a Chartered Tax Adviser and Chartered Accountant.

Nina E. Olson is the Executive Director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, a nonprofit that works to advance taxpayer rights in the United States and internationally.  From March 2001 to July 2019, Nina served as the National Taxpayer Advocate, leading the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service dedicated to assisting taxpayers resolve their problems with the IRS and making administrative and legislative recommendations to mitigate those problems systemically.  Before serving as the National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina founded and directed The Community Tax Law Project, the first independent Low Income Taxpayer Clinic in the US.  She also maintained a private legal practice, representing taxpayers in disputes with the IRS.

Professor Book is the John H. Buhsmer, Esq. ’84 Endowed Professor of Law at the Villanova Charles Widger School of Law. While at Villanova Professor Book has served as Director of the Federal Tax Clinic, Director of the Graduate Tax Program, and Director of the Online Graduate Tax Program. He also served as a Professor in Residence with the IRS, Taxpayer Advocate Service in 2019.

Professor Book is a national authority on tax procedure and tax administration.  He is the successor author for the Thomson Reuters treatise IRS Practice and Procedure and the cofounder and one of the primary bloggers at Procedurally Taxing. He has written numerous law review articles and three research reports submitted to Congress on behalf of the Taxpayer Advocate Service, including a 2019 report containing a series of proposals to improve the administration and delivery of refundable credits.

Book has testified before Congress on the fair administration of our nation’s tax laws and on the future of tax administration.  In 2007 he won the ABA Tax Section Janet Spragens Pro Bono Award, and Book continues to directly assist low income and underrepresented taxpayers through pro bono litigation. In 2018 he was the inaugural winner of the Diane Ambler Award for faculty curricular innovation for his work in creating the Villanova Online Graduate Tax Program with his colleague Joy Mullane. In 2021, Book won the Diane Ambler Faculty Scholarship Impact Award for scholarship that has had a significant impact on the law, the academy, the legal profession or policy debates.

Book is a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, Vice President (Publications)of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation, and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Taxpayer Rights.

Peter was first appointed to the Board in July 2017 and reappointed in October 2020. He was appointed as Chair in May 2023 and was Acting Chair immediately prior to his appointment as Chair.

Peter is a professional non-executive director. His experience in tax matters has developed over a 25-year career as a tax partner with KPMG, and as a registered tax agent for 16 years. Peter is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. He is Chairman of the Royal Flying Doctor Service SA & NT, Chairman of Wirra Wirra Vineyards, Chairman of Accord Property Holdings Pty Ltd and the Accord Property Development Fund, a Director of the South Australian Fire & Emergency Commission, Variety the Children’s Charity SA, and advisory board Chairman of Tim Adams Wines.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Adelaide.

Byungsik Jung is the Deputy Dean (CBT and Special Activities) of Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI).

His professional areas of expertise are international finance, trade agreements and international tax. His interest as Deputy Dean of ADBI lies in labor migration, regional economic integration and supply chain stability through regional trade agreements, alternative dispute resolution including mediation and international tax cooperation.

Prior to joining ADBI, he was the Director General for International Tax in the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Republic of Korea. He covered the Two Pillar Solution in the Inclusive Framework and was involved in the negotiation for terms of reference of the UN International Tax Cooperation Framework Convention as bureau member. He also worked for the international finance bureau in the Ministry of Economy and Finance as a Deputy Director General and served as a co-chair of the G20 International Financial Architecture Working Group for two and a half years from August 2019. He was responsible for the negotiations for various tax treaties and numerous free trade agreements between the Republic of Korea and other countries.

He earned his Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) in international trade laws from American University Washington College of Law in 2008 and his LL.M. degree in financial law from Georgetown Law Center in 2007. He earned a Bachelor of Law degree from Korea University in 1994. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 2008.

Kirsten Fish is ATO Second Commissioner for Law Design and Practice. In this role, Kirsten has overall responsibility for the ATO’s law practice, including law interpretation, public advice and guidance, independent dispute prevention and resolution, and the ATO’s role in policy and law design. The Law Design and Practice Group serves the community, government and clients by ensuring the tax and super laws are informed, understood, administered and applied with confidence and integrity and is the respected and trusted as the authoritative voice of the Commissioner on matters of law and revenue analysis.

Kirsten joined the ATO in 2014 and the ATO’s Chief Tax Counsel from 2015, one of the highest legal authorities within the ATO, leading the Tax Counsel Network and providing technical leadership in relation to significant tax issues, cases and rulings. Kirsten was acting Second Commissioner for 12 months before being formally appointed to the role in October 2021.

Prior to joining the ATO, Kirsten was a tax Partner at Clayton Utz with a focus on the financial services industry and providing finance and investment transaction advice.

Kirsten holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting), Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) and Masters of Law (Tax).

Paul has over 25 years of experience as an accounting practitioner, educator, and researcher. Paul's educational expertise concentrates on developing curriculum and teaching approaches for management/accounting courses in MBA, coursework Masters, and Bachelor Programs. Paul has also had previous involvement in developing and delivering resources for the CA Program.

Paul's research focuses on accounting, management control, and financial crime. Paul uses interview accounts and case studies to better understand drivers of illegitimate employee and business conduct, and identify practices that can better prevent, detect and address such conduct. Paul's current research agenda includes an Australian Research Council funded study into offender thinking and behaviour in serious occupational fraud. Paul's research has been published extensively in leading international academic journals, and has featured in a number of industry keynote presentations.

Paul has been recognised for his teaching and research via awards received from the International Federation of Accountants, Emerald Publishers, the AGSM, the UNSW Business School and the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand. 

Paul is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants ANZ, and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. With his strong industry connections and focus, Paul is a passionate advocate for impactful knowledge exchange that improves business thinking and practice. This is evidenced by Paul's involvement as an academic partner in McGrathNicol's Financial Crime Exchange, which advances the latest thinking on reducing business risks and impacts of financial crime.

Andrew is currently chair of the Financial Reporting Council (Australia), a member of the Board of Taxation and of the External Reporting Board (NZ). He is also the Chair of the Independent Planning Commission NSW. Andrew is a Principal Fellow/Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, a member of the Advisory Board of the ANU Tax Transfer Policy Institute and a member of the Australian Executive of the International Fiscal Association. He has over 40 years’ experience in senior commercial, practice, government and academic roles. Previously, Andrew served as Second Commissioner of Taxation at the Australian Taxation Office and was in practice in an accounting and law firm for over twenty years.

Julie Abdalla, FTI, is the Head of Tax and Legal at The Tax Institute. Julie has practiced in the corporate tax teams of Big 4 and top tier law firms in Sydney and Melbourne. She has expertise in law and policy across a broad range of taxes and industry sectors. Prior to joining The Tax Institute, Julie gained experience across the spectrum of UK taxes while working at an international law firm in London. Julie is driven to achieve holistic tax reform, and has the depth of knowledge to advocate for members and the betterment of the tax system.

Julie is responsible for The Tax Institute's technical positions and relationships with external stakeholders. She has oversight of The Tax Institute’s National Technical and State Taxes Committees comprised of over 150 volunteers. Julie represents The Tax Institutes in several external forums including the ATO’s National Tax Liaison Group and the Australian Treasury’s Tax Treaty Advisory Panel, and has appeared as an expert witness in several Senate Committee inquiries.

Julie has been recognised throughout the profession for her leadership and excellence in tax. She has been awarded a number of scholarships and awards including the International Bar Association Taxes Committee Scholarship, the Australian Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 Award in Tax, and a prize from the University of Oxford. Julie holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Juris Doctor from the University of Sydney, and a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne, part of which was completed at the University of Oxford.

Fahim leads BDO’s Data and AI service offering and is a Professor of Practice at UNSW. He has over 15 years’ experience across the areas of operational and commercial analysis, strategy, and stakeholder engagement. He is a sought after thought leader on data analytics and AI in Australia and has spoken to numerous high-impact national and global events. 

He is particularly interested in the identification and analysis of key drivers for organisations, and the development of new insights to create value. He is passionate about helping managers and executives make informed decisions on complex issues.

Fahim was recognised by the Australian Financial Review as a BOSS Young Executive of the Year for 2021.

In his role at UNSW Fahim focuses on developing and implementing the UNSW’s Accounting, Audit and Tax Education Strategy, integrating data analytics, AI and insights into all relevant accounting, tax and business courses and programs.

Michelle has been the Executive Director of the Corporate Tax Association since January 2015.  Prior to taking on the role as Executive Director she was the Assistant Director of the Corporate Tax Association for over nine years.

Michelle has extensive experience as an external stakeholder in the development of Australia’s tax policy and law, as well as aspects of tax administration.  Michelle is the co-chair of the Large Business Liaison Group and an executive committee member of the International Fiscal Association.

With over 25 years’ experience in the Australian Taxation Office, Will Day has performed many senior roles leading its support to taxpayers.

As ATO Deputy Commissioner for Small Business, Will is focused on helping small business owners get things right from the start by making it easier to comply with their tax and superannuation obligations as well as helping to improve overall business literacy and skills through education.

Will has responsibility for delivering a program of work that is focused on collaborating with partners to design a digital-first approach to make it easier for small businesses meet their obligations.

Will is also focused on making sure there is a level playing field for the vast majority of small businesses that do pay their fair share by looking closely at activities in the shadow economy.

Prior to his current role, Will had senior roles focused on improving the quality of the ATO’s technical public advice and guidance as well as roles supporting the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems.

Helen recently concluded 11 years at Xero, where she led the product regulatory compliance team and managed global engagement with revenue agencies. She is currently on sabbatical, reflecting on her career and exploring new opportunities.

At Xero, Helen played a key role in designing and implementing regulatory requirements for digital service providers, led the company's regulatory radar, and worked closely with product teams on the development of accounting, tax, and payroll features. She also led the team responsible for

Xero's position on OECD Tax Administration 3.0 and played a key role in securing ISO27001 accreditation, as well as in the creation of Xero's Security and Data Governance Groups.

Helen spearheaded the global rollout of Multi-Factor Authentication for all Xero customers.

With over 20 years of experience in public practice (audit at Deloitte NZ and business advisory at William Buck NZ), Helen has a deep passion for small business. She's spent 30 years running a small business with her husband and believes thriving small businesses are vital for strong communities and economies.

Helen is passionate about the digital transformation of global tax systems and the potential it has to simplify small business tax compliance, save time, empower advisors, and build trust in accounting records.

In 2022, Helen was named a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand for her service to the industry.

Dr. Kyung Geun Lee has been serving ASSIST (Seoul School of Integrated Sciences & Technologies) as a professor in charge of Digital Finance MBA since March 2021.

Dr. Lee has been the leader of the tax counseling part of Yulchon LLC since 2007, and his primary practice area includes counseling on tax issues (including transfer pricing) arising from foreign corporations’ advances into Korea, M&A and various forms of overseas investment by Korean companies. Dr. Lee has been recognized since 2013 by Chambers Asia-Pacific as a leading professional in Band 1 Group of Tax Consultants.

During his term at the Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF), he acted as the head of Korean delegation for tax treaty negotiations with tax authorities of China, Australia, Canada, etc., and in 1995, he took part in drafting the Law for Coordination of International Tax Affairs that includes transfer pricing rules and other cross-border anti-tax avoidance schemes. As such, Dr. Lee greatly contributed to building the framework for the Korean transfer pricing system and other international tax regimes of Korea.

From 1999 to 2003, he served as an Administrator (A4 level) at the OECD Center for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA), which mainly focuses on transfer pricing.

From 2003 to 2007, he served as the director of various divisions in MOEF including the Tax Tribunal and the Income Tax Division, International Tax Division, Corporate Tax Division.

Furthermore, Dr. Lee used to be a Vice-Chairman of the UN Tax Expert Convention for 4 years from July 2005, and participated in the Subcommittee on Transfer Pricing as a civilian TP expert since 2010. He also served IFA(International Fiscal Association) Korea as the President in 2019 after being heavily involved in the hosting activities of the Annual Congress in Seoul in 2018 as a high-level member of Organization Committee of that event.

Professor Christine (Tini) Mathies is the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Education at UNSW.  Her portfolio provides strategic direction and services supporting educational excellence and innovation at UNSW. Tini is an established strategic leader committed to student learning and student experience, with extensive expertise in award-winning curriculum design and innovation and a strong understanding of teaching and learning in higher education.

Tini has over 20 years of experience as a marketing academic. Her research and teaching focuses on services marketing, exploring how people and technology can create service experiences that create value for organisations, employees and customers alike.

Jan Breckenridge is a Professor and Head of the School of Social Sciences and the Co-Convener of the UNSW Gendered Violence Research Network, UNSW.  She is also a Research Fellow of the UNSW Australian Human Rights Institute (AHRI). Jan has undertaken extensive work and research in the areas of gendered violence. Select research areas include domestic, family and sexual violence and workplace responses; economic and financial abuse; homelessness and the potential of safe at home programs for women and children affected by domestic and family violence. Jan’s research is oriented towards maximum impact in innovative social policy development, service provision and outcome measurement of effectiveness. Jan leads an evidence informed knowledge-exchange stream ‘Gendered Violence and Organisations’, which provides expert advice to government, private and third sector organisations on best practice policies and organisational response to employees and the management of customers affected by domestic and family violence, sexual assault and sexual harassment.

Kay Cook is a Professor and the Associate Dean of Research in the School of Social Sciences, Media, Film and Education at Swinburne University of Technology. Her research explores how new and developing social policies such as welfare-to-work, child support and child care policies, transform relationships between individuals, families and the state. Her work seeks to make the personal impact of these policies explicit in order to provide tangible evidence to policy makers to affect more humanistic reform.

Her Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2017-2020) examined the personal, practical and institutional barriers to child support faced by women in Australia, the UK and USA. This project built on Professor Cook's gender critique of child support policymaking, data practices and implementation in order to strike a more equitable balance between women’s responsibility for managing child support payments and the social, administrative and political context in which this responsibility exists. More recently, her work has examined how economic abuse is perpetrated through banking, financial and government systems.

Professor Cook's research has contributed to numerous parliamentary inquiries and government processes. She is a member of the federal Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee that is legislatively required to provide advice on tackling disadvantage to government prior to each federal budget. She was an advisor on the development of the Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2010 General Social Survey, was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Family Studies from 2012 - 2018, a Co-Director of the International Network of Child Support Scholars, and is the current Secretary of The Australian Sociological Association.

Christine Speidel directs Villanova Law's Federal Tax Clinic. In the clinic, she teaches students to practice law by representing needy members of Villanova’s neighboring communities in federal tax disputes. Speidel frequently speaks and writes on issues affecting low-income taxpayers. Her research interests lie in the intersection of poverty law with tax law and tax procedure. She is an editor of the practice manual Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS. Speidel is also active in the American Bar Association Section of Taxation, where she is a Council Director and a past chair of the Section’s Pro Bono and Tax Clinics Committee.

Prior to her appointment at Villanova, Speidel practiced law at Vermont Legal Aid. She directed the Vermont Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic and was a staff attorney for Vermont Legal Aid's Office of the Health Care Advocate as well as the Poverty Law Project. She represented low-income individuals in tax, health care, domestic violence, and public benefits matters, and also advocated for systemic policy changes.