…and yet another firm wants to open an office in Asia . This time Withers 2nd office after their existing HK one.
International law firm Withers is opening a second office in Asia to meet the demand from institutions and individuals for tax and trust legal advice.
The new office will be located in Raffles Place in Singapore and is scheduled to open in May 2012, taking Withers? international office network to 10. The Singapore team will include Jay Krause, a US qualified partner specializing in servicing private clients, trust companies and financial institutions. He will head Withers wealth planning team in Asia and is acknowledged as one of the leaders in the field on the wide ranging impact of US IRS initiatives such as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and voluntary disclosure. He will be joined by Philip Munro, a UK and Hong Kong private client tax, trust and estates expert.
The expansion follows Withers? office opening in Hong Kong in 2008.
Krause said: “Recent developments in international taxpayer information exchange have created an overwhelming demand for our US and international tax expertise in Singapore, as well as its Southeast Asian neighbours such as Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as India and Australia. This need is increasing daily as more and more Asian institutions begin to come to grips with the far reaching effects of the new US FATCA legislation, requiring financial institutions and trust companies, among others, to identify their US clients and forward their details to local or US tax authorities.”
The Singapore office opening is subject to regulatory approval.
