Tim Grace

Tim Grace was admitted to practice in 1989 and signed the Bar Roll in April 2004.

Before coming to the Bar, Tim was a tax partner with a large firm and is recognised as an expert in property taxes, including transfer duty, landholder duty and land tax, as well as GST and CGT on property transactions. Tim has an active advice practice and tax litigation practice, which extends to advice on, and the conduct of, professional indemnity claims arising from tax advice.

Tim's Master of Laws degree concentrated on tax law and public law and Tim has written a number of technical papers on revenue law; he was also a reporter for the Victorian Reports. He was also a lecturer in the University of Melbourne Masters of Laws program, lecturing in State Taxes. 

Tim has considerable experience in State tax disputes, and is involved in many cases against the State Revenue Office - from the early stages of an audit through to proceedings at VCAT, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal (and the High Court).

Recent Media Commentary

19 October 2023
States demand federal fix to EV tax chaos - The Australian Financial Review
"Vanderstock: The High Court, by a 4:3 majority, strikes down State taxes on all goods.
Melbourne State Taxes and constitutional law barrister, Tim Grace, said the ruling would clearly be disruptive to State tax arrangements.

Apart from striking down EV duty, the effect of the majority judgment is this that all State and Territory taxes on the transfer of used motor vehicles are now unconstitutional; and all State and Territory taxes on the registration of new motor vehicles are unconstitutional.

These motor vehicle taxes raise around $1bn in revenue each year in each of Victoria and NSW. The revenue raised to date for Victoria by the EV tax was, by contrast, negligible. Other State taxes on goods are also almost inevitably invalid as a result of the majority judgment."

* Tim has been engaged to speak on the State tax implications of the High Court Vanderstock judgment at the Tax Institute's Victorian Tax Forum on 22 March 2024.

Areas of tax specialisation

Duties Act 2000

Stamp duty

Transfer duty

Landholder duty

Foreign purchaser surcharge

Land Tax Act 2005

Land tax

Land tax absentee owner surcharge

Vacant residential land tax

Windfall Gains Tax

Payroll tax

Growth Areas Infrastructure Levy (GAIC)

Congestion levy (car parking levy)

CGT

GST

Income tax

Anti-avoidance

Tax and administrative law

Tax and constitutional law