Associate Professor Sonali Walpola

Sonali Walpola

RSA

Research School of Accounting

Position
Associate Professor
Email
sonali.walpola@anu.edu.au
Phone number
+61 2 612 58059
Office
Room 3.21, CBE Bld (26C)
Link
https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/persons/sonali-walpola
Research areas

Tax law and policy; common law developments.

Biography

Dr Sonali Walpola is an Associate Professor at the ANU College of Business and Economics. Sonali's research interests broadly encompass taxation law and policy and the nature of common law developments. Her recent projects have analysed integrity measures to address tax avoidance through trusts, the interpretation of the residence article in double tax agreements, and the Australian High Court's attitude to change in the common law. Sonali is a co-editor of Austaxpolicy, the Journal of Australian Taxation and Law&History, which is the journal of the Australia New Zealand Law History Society.  Sonali is a fellow of the ANU Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, a member of The Tax Institute Higher Education Academic Board, and the Academic Lead of the ANU Tax Clinic, which she co-founded in 2019. 

View ORCID profile

Research publications

Selected Publications:

‘Justice and the Australian income tax base: taxing capital gains and trusts’ Australian Tax Forum (2025)—with J Minas; in press.

'Certainty in individual residence and the interpretation of tiebreaker rules in tax treaties’ (2025) Blueprint for Individual Taxation Reform in a Globalized World, International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation, Amsterdam—with J Minas, K Stark, S Correia da Silva. 

'R&D Tax Incentive Reforms and Firm Value: Worldwide Evidence’ (Dec 2024) European Accounting Review 1-29—with KT Wang, NZ Zhu, I Ulima. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180.2024.2433231

‘The potential of section 100A ITAA36 to address tax avoidance using trusts’ (2024) 39(4) Australian Tax Forum 519

‘Tax Aggressiveness and the Australian Capital Market: Do Analysts Understand the Complexities of Corporate Tax Avoidance? (2024) 39(3) Australian Tax Forum—with Yuan (Helen) Ping. 

‘A Critical Examination of the Tax-motivated Use of Discretionary Trusts – Evidence, Identifying Tax Avoidance, and the Efficacy of Legislative Tools’ (2022) 51 Australian Tax Review 153-173.

'After the Australia Acts: the High Court's Attitude to Changing the Common Law (1987-2016)' (2021) 21(1) Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal 31-72.

'The Taxation of Capital Gains in Trusts after Bamford: A critical evaluation of the streaming regime in Subdivision 115-C ITAA97' (2020) 35(3) Australian Tax Forum 314-350.

 'The Qualification to the Birthright Doctrine and Beyond: the Judicial Attitude to Adapting the Common Law to Australian Conditions' (2020) 94 Australian Law Journal 294-308.

 'The Development of the High Court's Willingness to Overrule Common Law Precedent' (2017) 45(2) Federal Law Review 291-312.

 

 

Research grants and awards

2018 CBE Teaching Excellence Award

Research engagement and outreach

Engagement/outreach relationships:

Academic supervisor of the ANU Tax Clinic. 

This clinic has been set up to provide a resource that educates and supports the lower socio economic population with their income tax matters.

Co-editor, Austaxpolicy – 2018-ongoing.

 

Teaching

Taxation Law graduate and undergraduate courses

Commercial Law (graduate course)