The post-Federal Budget world of tax, property and investment was the focus of a roundtable hosted by Nicholes Family Lawyers at the firm’s Melbourne office on 6 August 2026.
Following a wave of headlines about the Federal Budget’s proposed changes to capital gains tax, negative gearing and trust taxation, Nicholes Family Lawyers brought together two expert speakers to cut through the noise. We heard from taxation lawyer Philip Diviny, Principal at Madgwicks Lawyers, who has extensive experience across tax advisory, tax controversy and international tax matters. We also heard from property acquisition strategy expert Taryn Mackenzie, Founder & Partner at Meridian. Taryn advises on property acquisition strategy for a client base that spans from first-time homebuyers to investors to family offices. Nicholes Family Lawyers Founder and Principal, Sally Nicholes, hosted and moderated the session, drawing on why the topic matters so directly to our clients – property settlements and financial futures rarely unfold in isolation from the broader tax and property landscape, and family law clients are often navigating both at once.
Philip Diviny
Philip Diviny is a Principal at Madgwicks Lawyers with a particular gift for making genuinely complicated tax questions sound straightforward. He advises on the taxation consequences of structuring, property and investment decisions, and has a strong interest in how legislative change plays out for real clients, not just in theory.
Philip walked guests through the three tax measures he considers most significant in this year’s Budget – the deemed disposal of CGT assets from 1 July 2027, the end of the current discount regime, the return of an indexation-style approach, the abolition of pre-CGT assets, and a new 30% minimum tax on real capital gains, as well as the proposed limitations on negative gearing.
Taryn Mackenzie
Taryn Mackenzie is Founder & Partner at Meridian, where she advises on property acquisition strategy for a client base spanning first-time homebuyers, investors, and family offices. She brings a practical, on-the-ground perspective to how policy changes actually impact portfolios and decision-making.
Taryn tested the Budget’s stated aims – improving affordability and boosting new housing supply – against the data and found a wide gap between intention and outcome, and considered some of the potential unintended consequences: investors retreating from the established market, a tightening squeeze on rental supply in the locations people most want to live, and first-home buyers increasingly funnelled into competition with investors in new-build estates. Drawing on long-term price-to-income data, she reminded guests that: “owning real estate doesn’t automatically mean it goes up in value, because that’s not actually its purpose”.
Taryn closed with a practical set of indicators for guests to watch in the months ahead, from auction and inspection activity to median days on market, as signs of where the cycle is headed next.
Sally Nicholes
Reflecting on the discussion, Sally Nicholes, Founder and Principal of Nicholes Family Lawyers, drew the threads back to our own clients. Understanding how shifting tax and property settings affect separation, settlements, and long-term financial security, she noted, is critical to the advice we give every day.
As Sally observed in her closing remarks: “In a landscape defined by change and uncertainty, good advice has never been more important. The value of thoughtful, well-informed advisors working collaboratively across disciplines is only going to increase.”
Nicholes Family Lawyers was delighted to host such a timely and practical discussion and would like to thank Philip and Taryn for so generously sharing their expertise, and everyone who joined us for their time, engagement and questions.
| Philip Diviny Principal Madgwicks Lawyers philip.diviny@madgwicks.com.au 03 9242 4708 | Taryn Mackenzie Founder and Partner Meridian taryn@meridian144.com.au 0411 779 802 |