Section 39 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law and the Federal Commissioner of Taxation

Abstract

The Law Institute of Victoria (‘the LIV’) believes that legal professional privilege is an important and fundamental right to a practitioner upholding their obligations under Professional Conduct Rules and the Legal Profession Uniform Law. The LIV is concerned with recent media attention given to the Australian Taxation Office’s (‘ATO’s’) intention to ‘clamp down’ on the use of privilege and notes that the ATO has released draft protocols which it claims are aimed at managing and assessing claims of privilege by practitioners. The LIV is concerned that any protocols or actions by the ATO which seek to undermine a client’s reliance on legal professional privilege, or result in a practitione..