Sylvester Urban is a Senior Associate in the tax group with 15 years’ experience advising on income tax, GST and stamp duty matters for large corporations.
Sylvester advises on some of the most complex tax issues affecting the financial services industry, and has particular expertise in cross-border tax regimes.
Sylvester is a leading expert on the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS), having advised financial institutions and investment entities since the inception of those regimes.
Sylvester also assists clients in other sectors such as energy & resources, infrastructure, telecommunications and industrials. Sylvester has been involved on some of the largest M&A deals and in tax audits and tax litigation with tax authorities.
In this spare time, Sylvester is a chess master who competes in strong chess tournaments.
Sylvester's work highlights include:
- NAB, IAG, BOQ, Challenger and others: advised on the tax aspects of recent debt issuances, and obtained rulings from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
- Several multinational clients: advised on responding to the ATO’s questions on compliance with section 128F of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth).
- Australian bank: advised on a FATCA/CRS review by the ATO.
- Large asset manager: advised in relation to voluntary disclosure and remediation of complex trust taxation and FATCA/CRS breaches.
- Multinational client: Provided comprehensive advice on the application of the Pillar Two regime.
- A range of mutual banks: part of the market-leading team to pioneer the issuance of mutual capital instruments.
- AIG and other insurers: regularly advises W&I insurers on a range of complex tax issues across many different industries.
- Chevron Global Energy Inc: provided critical tax structuring advice in relation to Chevron’s acquisition of Puma Energy’s retail fuels business.
- Newmont: advised Newmont on its A$26bn acquisition of Newcrest.
- Woodside: advised on the merger with BHP’s petroleum business.
- Leading insurance group: advised in relation to a substantial income tax dispute with the Commissioner of Taxation.
