As a specialist tax barrister, James Coleman has conducted over 140 reported tax cases at all levels of the Court system in the past 28 years
James has appeared in more tax cases in New Zealand than any other lawyer. He has appeared in over 140 reported cases ranging from the Privy Council and Supreme Court through to the Taxation Review authority and District court.
Read more about tax disputes
Tax investigations can be enormously stressful. There is the stress of having to comply with multiple information requests then there is the uncertainty of not knowing what Inland Revenue might do in terms of re-assessing you.
Read more about tax investigations
James has recently won the leading case on personal tax residency in New Zealand, CIR v Diamond. The win meant that Inland Revenue had to withdraw its then published policy statement and issue a new one.
Read more about tax residency
Inland Revenue is increasingly auditing the hidden economy. In particular they are targeting the hospitality and construction sectors. These investigations can lead to large tax debts.
Read more about debt & fraud
Some of the latest cases James has argued are listed below. For most people litigation is a once in a life time event. Wisdom, integrity and experience are vital.
He has spent 10 years writing a tax column for the New Zealand Law journal and he also writes for taxation today and for the Thompson Reuters NZ publication New Zealand Taxation Principals, Cases & Questions 2016.
James is also a teaching fellow at the University of Auckland Law School. He teaches as part of the Masters of Taxation course.
James is the author of a text book on Tax Avoidance Law in New Zealand, which is currently in its second addition.
The tax landscape is such that revenue authorities are increasingly exchanging information about private individuals with revenue authorities in foreign states. This article looks at what limits there might be to that. It was published in Taxation Today October 2017 and the NZLJ in November 2017
James Coleman, Barrister, Wellington on the application of the associated persons test by the High Court
James Coleman, Barrister, Wellington on Trustpower’s journey to the Supreme Court
James Coleman, Barrister, Wellington, on proposed changes to non-resident withholding tax rules
Taxation of complex employment remuneration
See all articlesJames comments from time to time on relevant developments. Be in the loop and sign up for his newsletter.
