Partner, Melbourne
Phone +61 3 9288 1241
Fax +61 3 9288 1567
steven.stevens@freehills.com
Current practice
Steve Stevens is a partner in the revenue law section of Freehills, joining the firm in 1989 and becoming a partner in 1993.Industry experience
Steve practised as an economist and was a senior Victorian Treasury official prior to commencing his legal career in 1987. Since joining Freehills in 1989, Steve has practised in revenue law, banking and finance and financial services.Steve advises on state tax issues and structuring for the financial services and corporate sectors, including infrastructure, property and trust acquisitions and financing transactions. He has advised on a number of transactions involving power stations, roads and airport investments; and negotiated exemptions from stamp duty for some of the major recent corporate restructures/mergers in Australia.
Steve has also acted as in-house legal counsel to one of Australia's leading fund managers.
Steve has been an active contributor to the Stamp Duty Rewrite and has presented a critique of the Rewrite to the Commissioners of State Revenue at their invitation. He has also represented a number of industry bodies in negotiations with State and Territory Revenue Offices and with the ATO in respect of stamp duty and income tax issues, respectively. He has written and presented a number of papers to seminars and conferences on State taxes and on GST, including papers on acquisitions of businesses, mergers of trusts, corporate and trust acquisitions and restructures and multi-jurisdictional mortgages. He is an active member of the Law Institute of Victoria's State Taxes Committee and Tax and Revenue Committee and represents the Law Institute on the Victorian Government's State Taxes Consultative Council.
