Chinawat Assavapokee joins Hunton & Williams as a tax partner in Thailand
Hunton & Williams (Thailand) Limited continues its focused expansion in key practice areas, adding partner Chinawat Assavapokee to its global corporate, energy and infrastructure practice from Baker & McKenzie. Mr. Assavapokee brings more than 15 years of experience in tax planning advice with respect to cross-border business transactions, including corporate income tax, import and excise duties, privatization plans, and tax planning and structures for a wide range of inbound investment projects. He joins Hunton & Williams’ 50-lawyer Bangkok office, the center of the firm’s Asia-Pacific practice that includes energy and infrastructure development, M&A and capital markets, finance, banking and lending regulations, stock market regulations, securities, tax, government regulations, and foreign direct investment matters.
“Khun Chinawat has a strong, impressive tax practice. We look forward to working with him to build on the success of our domestic practice in Thailand and our cross border inbound and outbound M&A and energy practices,” said Edward Koehler, managing partner of the firm’s Asia-Pacific offices.
Mr. Chinawat is a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy at Chulalongkorn University. He is a member of the Lawyers Council of Thailand, and was recognized in 2012 by Chambers Asia as a “Tier 1 Individual.” He earned his LLB from Thammasat University and his LLM in tax from the University of Washington.
Chinawat’s experience includes:
- Representation of various companies regarding the corporate restructuring prior-to IPO.
- Representation of Auto Alliance (manufacturer of Ford and Mazda) regarding the excise tax dispute in the Tax Court on open–cab pick-up trucks whether the vehicle was considered pick-up trucks or passenger cars for excise tax purposes (1 Billion Baht).
- Representation of Auto Alliance regarding the investigation of Department of Special Investigation (“DSI”) on customs issue (1 Billion Baht).
- Representation of Asian Honda in a Tax Court Case with respect to the tax issues arising from the Entire Business Transfer Structure advised by an accounting firm (500 million Baht).
- Representation of a beverage company in various customs investigations on the classification issues and rule of origin issues (200 million Baht).
- Representation of Yum in various customs investigations on the classification issues.
- Representation of The Federation of Thai Industries and its members in the Administrative Court to assist the clients in a landmark accusation on the importation of sulfur without obtaining import license (Billions Baht). This case is an example to use the Administrative Court to cope with customs investigation.
- Representation of Samsung Engineering (Thailand) dealing with Custom Department, DSI and public prosecutes on several customs cases (i.e. engineering fees, hazardous substances, and BOI issues) (Billion Baht).
- Representation of Minebea and its affiliates and Bangkok Airways in landmark court cases with respect to the calculation of tax loss carried over after tax holiday (BOI has a different view from Revenue Department) (Billions Baht).
- Representation of Bangkok Airways in several court cases regarding the House and Land Tax. The dispute arose because Bangkok Airways set up a property fund and undertook a lease-and-lease back structure. This same assessment could happen with other funds.