James Coleman is a senior tax counsel. He has argued more tax cases in New Zealand courts than any other tax barrister having built that experience up over 30 years of being in the tax business. Give him a call for advice and representation where experience counts.
If you own residential land the bright-line rules potentially apply to you. There are now quite a number of exceptions. James can let you know whether the bright-line rules apply and what steps may be available to mitigate it.
Read more about how James can help
James won the leading case on personal tax residency in New Zealand. He provides expert advice on tax residence and source issues as well as international trust matters.
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James acts for individuals facing prosecution for a range of tax offences and has extensive experience in this area. It is important to obtain legal advice at the earliest opportunity once it appears that prosecution may be under consideration.
Read more about tax prosecutions.
Are you are under audit or in the IRD dispute process? James is a leading tax barrister having worked in this space for over 28 years. He can help you through it.
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In this case, the applicant, having been deregistered as a charity, successfully appealed Charity Services’ decision not to backdate its re-registration to the date of the original deregistration. The effect of that relief was to avoid liability for tax under s HR 12 of the Income Tax Act 2007. The decision demonstrates that a discretion exists and, in an appropriate case, will be exercised by the Court in favour of the taxpayer.
In this case, the applicant had been deregistered as a charity and, having lodged its appeal out of time, sought an order that it be re-registered with effect from the date of deregistration. The evident purpose of that relief was to avoid liability for deregistration tax under s HR 12 of the Income Tax Act 2007.
This case concerns whether the Commissioner’s electronic transmission of the Statement of Position was effected in time, notwithstanding that it was not received in the recipient’s inbox. The Court considered the operation of s 14(7) of the Tax Administration Act, which incorporates s 214 of the Contracts and Commercial Law Act 2017, and examined the principles governing the determination of when an electronic communication is received.
This is the first case dealing with the sentencing approach when a defendant has pleaded guilty to evading assessment rather than evading payment of tax under s 143B(1)(f) of the TAA
I acted for the respondent Mrs Roberts in this appeal. We were successful. The Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the High Court judgment. The result was that debt forgiveness is correctly classified as a monetary gift. The government has fought a long campaign against this result and 24 hours after the Court of Appeal judgment was released issued notification that they would change the law in 2020.
See all casesJames 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 textbook on Tax Avoidance Law in New Zealand, which is currently in its third edition.
This article looks at the operation of s HD 15, which is an anti-asset-stripping rule in the tax legislation. It specifically looks at the various time limits as to the operation of that section.
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
See all articlesJames comments from time to time on relevant developments. Be in the loop and sign up for his newsletter.
