Michael Littlewood

BA (Auckland); LLB (Hons) (Auckland),
PhD (University of Hong Kong)

Contact details
Building 803, room 217
17 Eden Crescent
Auckland

Phone: +64 9 923 5633
Email: m.littlewood@auckland.ac.nz

Available to students
Open door policy

Profile

Michael Littlewood specialises in tax. In addition to New Zealand tax, his work has mostly been in the areas of Hong Kong tax, Chinese tax, international tax, comparative tax, tax planning, tax policy, the politics of taxation, tax history and constitutional aspects of taxation. His work has been published in the US, the UK, Hong Kong, China, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. Michael is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University and a Fellow of the Law and Economics Association of New Zealand. Although a full-time academic, he from time to time provides advice to private clients, governments, and non-governmental organisations.

Michael teaches Tax Law (LAW 429) and Advanced Tax Law (LAW 409) and sometimes also teaches masters level courses in tax. He also supervises student research in tax. In recent years, students whom he has supervised have written about various aspects of the tax system, including (a) international tax (for example, tax treaties); (b) tax avoidance; (c) tax history; (d) political and constitutional aspects of taxation (for example, fiscal responsibility); (e) tax policy; (f) tax competition; and (g) doctrinal analysis.

Representative Publications

• "The History of Death Duties and Gift Duty in New Zealand” (2012) New Zealand Journal of Taxation Law and Policy, 66-103 , also published in John Tiley, ed, Studies in the History of Tax Law, volume 5, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2012, 317-357.
• “Tax System Design and the Instructive Case of Hong Kong” Tax Notes International, 18 July 2011, 193-213.

• “Tax Avoidance, the Rule of Law and the New Zealand Supreme Court” [2011] New Zealand Law Review 35-68, also published in Richard Ekins, ed, Modern Challenges to the Rule of Law, LexisNexis, Wellington, 2011, 263-294.
• “Tax Competition: Harmful to Whom?” in Asif Qureshi and Xuan Gao, eds, Critical Concepts in Law: International Economic Law, Routledge, London, 2010, volume VI, 162-234; reprinted from (2004) 26 Michigan Journal of International Law 411-487
• “The Hong Kong Tax System: Its History, its Future and the Lessons it Holds for the Rest of the World” (2010) 40 Hong Kong Law Journal 65-84.
• Taxation without Representation: The History of Hong Kong’s Troublingly Successful Tax System, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, 2010.
• "The Supreme Court and Tax Avoidance" [2009] New Zealand Law Journal 151-155; also published as "Ben Nevis Forestry Ventures Ltd v CIR; Glenharrow Ltd v CIR - New Zealand's New Supreme Court and Tax Avoidance" [2009] British Tax Review 169-180.
• "The Legacy of UK Tax Law in Hong Kong" [2008] British Tax Review 253-270.
• "The Privy Council and the Australasian Anti-Avoidance Rules" [2007] British Tax Review 175-205.
• "The Tax Consequences of Withdrawals of Trading Stock: Resolving the Conundrum of Sharkey v Wernher" [2005] 35 Hong Kong Law Journal 327-365.
• "How Simple Can Tax Law be? The Instructive Case of Hong Kong" Tax Notes International, 23 May 2005, 689-702.
• "Hard Times, Absconding Expatriates and the Possibility of PAYE in Hong Kong" [2005] 35 Hong Kong Law Journal 129-150 (with Elaine Lee).
• "The Privy Council, the Source of Income and Stare Decisis" [2004] British Tax Review 121-145.
• "Tax Reform in Hong Kong in the 1970s: Sincere Failure or Successful Charade?" in John Tiley, ed, Studies in the History of Tax Law, Hart Publishing, 2004, 379-417.
• "Taxation without Representation: the History of Hong Kong's Troublingly Successful Tax System" [2002] British Tax Review 212-232.