Brisbane-based barrister Matthew Hickey being pursued by ATO over long-standing $2.7 million tax bill

Matthew Hickey is an elite Kings Counsel barrister —a thoughtful orator who works on some of Queensland's most important legal inquiries.

He is an accomplished operatic singer who once toured Europe and helped produce platinum-selling albums. His services to the law and music are such that he was awarded an Order of Australia medal in 2021.

But the 50-year-old has also been quietly facing an Australian Taxation Office (ATO) battle. Just last month, a default judgment was entered in Queensland's Supreme Court against Mr Hickey for $2.7 million relating to tax debts and penalties stretching back to 2013.

Brisbane-based Mr Hickey and the tax office declined to comment to the ABC.

The action is one of many the tax office takes — it was the plaintiff in 297 lawsuits filed in higher Queensland courts since June this year alone — and shows that even high-performing individuals can face such problems.

The tax office even warned in March this year that lawyers were under the "compliance spotlight", saying its work had revealed "some lawyers are failing to lodge returns, are making errors, or not paying their taxes on time". The tax office had in investigations of lawyers raised $28 million — and it warned of potential professional exile for lawyers falling foul of tax matters.

Mr Hickey's storied career stretches decades.

He had been a professional operatic tenor who toured with the Ten Tenors. As an executive producer and artistic director, the group "achieved gold and platinum records in Australia and abroad", his work profile stated. That included the 2006 album Tenology.

But he detailed, in the Happy Lawyer podcast, a health struggle during his music career and a desire for a different job. He also said his time in show business did not leave him "rolling in dough".

He became a lawyer, taking the rare step of quickly becoming a barrister in 2010. Since then, he's been named in top listings from Doyle's Guide to the Australian Financial Review in sectors from construction to insolvency law.

Mr Hickey has represented a top scientist at the forensic DNA testing commission of inquiry, appeared for a victim's family at the Dreamworld ride tragedy coroner's inquest, and acted for liquidators in an action involving Clive Palmer's Queensland Nickel.

He writes graceful pieces on issues from dementia to manhood and the need for politicians to act with gravitas, but in the past few weeks has taken down his LinkedIn profile.

He only last November became a Kings Counsel, known as taking silk. 

The Bar Association of Queensland describes the KC designation as going to only 10 per cent of practising barristers and indicates their "standing and achievements justify an expectation … they can provide outstanding services as advocates and advisers, to the good of the administration of justice".

ATO files lawsuit

In January this year, the tax office filed its lawsuit alleging Mr Hickey had been hit with penalty interest charges for income tax bills dating from 2013 to 2021. Notices for the tax bills were sent annually, the document states.

"The defendant failed to pay income tax for the relevant periods on or before the relevant due dates," a statement of claim said.

The lawsuit alleged that interest was still accruing in January this year. For instance, the tax bill sent in 2014 of $151,404.70 had an accumulated interest charge of $32,064.34.

At some stage — the timing is unclear — the principal on many year's income tax bills was paid. Still, in January when the lawsuit was initially filed, chunks of principal tax assessments from 2020 and 2021 allegedly remained outstanding.

But on top of outstanding income tax and penalties of about $500,000, the lawsuit alleged another $2 million related to business activities and penalty interest was owed.

Mr Hickey was even personally served with legal papers at his rented home in a well-off Brisbane suburb, at 10:30am one Saturday in February, the court documents state.

By this November, no defence had been filed. A tax office compliance officer wrote that $56,475.32 had been repaid or credited against Mr Hickey's bill since March this year.

But charges outstanding were still increasing and by November, the amount sought and entered for a default judgment hit $2.7 million.

A serious next step in some debt recovery situations is to sue for bankruptcy in the Federal Court — with a financial judgment in another court used as proof. 

But that step has not been taken in Mr Hickey's situation, and debt deals can be arranged.