James Trainor

Executive summary

James is a Partner in BDO’s Tax team in Sydney. He has over 25 years’ experience providing employment tax and expatriate tax services to a range of public, private, and not-for-profit clients.

With a background with global accounting firms and major banks, James brings extensive experience in employee remuneration design and tax, including incentive arrangements and employee share schemes.

Throughout his career, James has participated in numerous consultation forums; this has given him a deep understanding of tax policy development and tax law design at state and federal levels. He has also acquired unique regulatory insights through ongoing interaction with state and federal revenue authorities to clarify and resolve tax matters.

His deep technical and industry expertise, strong risk management focus, and collaborative approach with clients allow James to develop innovative taxation solutions that support his clients as they grow.

Expertise

• Tax advisory
• Fringe benefits tax (FBT)
• Payroll tax
• Workers’ compensation
• Superannuation and employer PAYG obligations
• Payroll consulting
• Incentive arrangements and employee share schemes
• Tax risk management
• Expatriate and individual tax
• Wage and superannuation compliance management and remediation support

Experience

• Negotiated favourable ATO rulings for the implementation and subsequent modification of employee share plans
• Successfully managed pay-as-you-earn (PAYE), FBT, payroll tax, employee, and social security audits in numerous jurisdictions
• Actively participated in government consultations on employee share schemes, FBT, and payroll tax
• Provided advice to clients and their employees on tax issues arising from international assignments to and from Australia
• Advised high net worth clients on Australian and international tax issues
• Remediation of wage and superannuation underpayments over several years across all Australian states and territories.

Qualifications and affiliations

• Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Economics (Accounting and Finance)
• Graduate Certificate in Accounting
• NSW Legal Practising Certificate – Corporate Legal Practitioner (unsupervised)
• Chartered Tax Adviser, The Tax institute

Professional engagements and activities

• Member, FBT & Employment Taxes National Technical Committee, The Tax Institute.