Joseph Hage Aaronson LLP

Consultant; Tax Disputes

Simon Whitehead was a founding partner of the firm. He has more than 36 years of litigation experience and has spent more than 23 years exclusively focusing on contentious tax, mostly in direct tax and particularly corporation tax.  He represents high net worth individuals, the largest multinationals and household names in complex tax disputes in all areas of direct and indirect tax in the UK and Europe.  He has represented clients at all court levels including 9 times in each of the Supreme Court and CJEU.

Simon has been selected as the lead and test-case solicitor in most group litigation orders in the Chancery Division of the High Court, in which multinational company groups challenge the lawfulness of various UK corporate tax imposts. He established the first ever Group Litigation Order in the Administrative Court, which successfully challenged HMRC’s practice in assessing the tax transfer of pension savings to foreign pension funds.

His cases include the Marks & Spencer (group relief), Prudential (dividend taxation, the ROSIIP (pension transfers) and Autologic (jurisdiction of tax courts) cases.  He has been top ranked in leading legal directories for well over a decade.

Publications include Tax Journal, EC Tax Review, Taxation, International Tax Review & others.  Editor The Tax Disputes and Litigation Review (8 Eds).

Simon was a founding partner of the firm in 2013. Previously he was Partner in Charge International at Dorsey & Whitney (10 years) and before that a partner at PwC Legal.

Solicitor admitted in England and Wales and Australian Courts

PhD (Sydney University 1993)