Areas of practice        
Revenue – Stamp Duty Law
Trust – Family Law 
Tax – Payroll

Date of admission to the Bar
1995

Contact details                     
+612 8815 9160
david.raphael@5wentworth.com

Professional career
Mr Raphael was a solicitor for over thirty years before being called to the Bar in 1995. During that time, he was the solicitor in eight High Court hearings, one of them being the very well known DKLR Holding Co (No 2) Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Stamp Duties (NSW) [1982] HCA 14; (1982) 149 CLR 431 (21 April 1982). This case marked the significance of the declaration of trust within stamp duties.

As a solicitor, his specialties were State and Federal revenue laws and he lectured in advanced revenue at the University of New South Wales. He also specialised in conveyancing and property law and in the law of trusts.

Upon coming to the Bar, these remained his main areas of practice, in addition to trust and corporate revenue areas in family law disputes, de facto relations law and Family Provisions Act claims.

Selected cases
Mr Raphael advises on land tax and payroll tax and has conducted a number of test cases in those areas, such as Terry Shields Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Pay-Roll Tax (NSW) (1989) 17 NSWLR 493; (1989) 98 ALR 559; (1989) 96 FLR 134; (1989) 89 ATC 4674; (1989) 20 ATR 901 and Denham Constructions Pty Ltd v Chief Commissioner of State Revenue — (1998) 99 ATC 4139; (1998) 40 ATR 416; BC9806753. These cases both concerned the finer points of payroll tax law.

Mr Raphael conducts many interesting revenue law cases, such as Conley v FCT, where he postulated that American dollars were not “money” for the purpose of s 218 of the 1936 Tax Act (now s 260-5 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953) and his views were vindicated both a first instance and in the full Federal Court and, ultimately, by the refusal to the Commissioner of Taxation of a grant of special leave to appeal to the High Court. The case of Lee v FCT 1999 ATC 4042 was a delicate point of stamp duty law involving the land rich provisions of the Stamp Duties Act 1920.

Publications
Mr Raphael has published a number of articles in the Australian Law Journal on conveyancing and property law and especially the law of trusts. He has also published a number of articles on revenue law in the Australian Tax Review and the Journal of the Taxation Institute of Australia. He delivered a paper at the National Taxation Institute Convention in Adelaide in March 2008 dealing with the new Payroll Tax Acts of Victoria and New South Wales.

Memberships
Following the death of his friend, the late Justice Hill, Mr Raphael was appointed an editor and writer of Hill on the Duties Act.