Jerome Tse is a globally sought after tax specialist in international taxation and tax controversy, leading KWM’s transfer pricing practice. Jerome advises multinational and Australian businesses, with a particular skill in resolving seemingly intractable disputes with the ATO and State tax regulators. He is often called upon by clients to take over from and/or work with existing advisers to achieve resolution. He also has a broad pro-bono tax practice. Amongst his many household name clients are BHP, Brookfield, Bupa, Canva, Chevron, Ford, Glencore, Saudi-based Neom, Shell and Toyota. His portfolio of ultra-high net wealth clients include many of Australia’s UHNW individuals and/or their family offices.
In the recent past, he has consulted with both the ATO and Treasury on several key measures impacting business in Australia, including on intangibles, software royalties, thin capitalisation, hybrid mismatches, debt creation, Part IVA, BEPS, corporate residency and employee/contractor issues.
As a former President of the Tax Institute in Australia and the current co-chair of the Australian Taxation Office’s National Tax Liaison Group, he is also at the cutting edge of tax policy, administration and governance, seamlessly combining advocacy for clients with his focus on ensuring that Australia’s tax settings remain economically competitive in a globally connected world. He is regularly asked to present at the American Bar Association, Canadian Tax Foundation, Corporate Tax Association, International Bar Association, Law Council of Australia and Tax Institute conferences in Australia and internationally.
Some of Jerome’s major work highlights include:
- Altium: resolving a intangibles migration dispute prior to formal litigation, and also advising Altium on its US$7bn sale to Renesas.
- Bupa: advising and successfully instructing Bupa in the Federal Court concerning superannuation obligations and in the Supreme Court of New South Wales on insurance duty.
- Chevron: successfully resolving one of the landmark global transfer pricing cases involving a USD$2.45b facility bad debt and limited recourse debt disputes in the Federal, Full Federal and High Courts of Australia.
- Glencore: successfully advising on the landmark commodity transfer pricing case (also in the Federal, Full Federal and High Courts of Australia), and separately instructing in the original jurisdiction of the High Court of Australia in relation to novel matters concerning attorney-client privilege.
Recognising the importance of law in society, Jerome is a member of the firm’s cultural diversity working group, gender equality group and leads the Sydney office’s LGBTIQ+ network. He also volunteers in board positions for not-for-profits to lend both time and expertise.
