His time in front of the commission saw him admit to accepting close to $80,000 from Hilton Grugeon and Jeff McCloy, the developers behind a proposal for 3000 homes in Wallalong.

While it was not illegal at the time to accept those donations, the inquiry heard that Mr Baumann failed to reveal them in election funding disclosures.

It has been illegal to accept donations from developers since January 2010.

During the inquiry, Mr Baumann was questioned on his dealings with Darren Williams from Buildev as well as a $100,000 donation from his accountant, Vincent Heufel.

It was revealed that Mr Baumann's company, Valley Homes, was building a house for Mr Heufel and the donation made to the Port Stephens MP's campaign was in exchange for making a payment on the value of the house.

The commission heard that by Mr Heufel giving $100,000 to the Liberal Party as a donation rather than to Valley Homes as payment for the house, the company avoided paying part of the income tax on the business arrangement.

Mr Baumann conceded that it would have been easier to pay for his election campaign himself, as originally intended, than to have Mr Heufel make the donation.

"You're dead right Commissioner, it was just as easy to come from my own account," he told the inquiry.

When pressed on the issue by the Examiner, Mr Baumann said that an amended tax return had been submitted in order to rectify the disparity.

"Believe it or not it sounded like a good idea at the time," he said.

"I honestly don't think either one of us thought of the tax implications at all at that point."

The Commissioner, Megan Latham, said her findings will be handed down in January.