Adeline Wong
Biography
Adeline Wong heads the Tax, Trade and Wealth Management Practice Group at Wong & Partners. She has over 30 years of experience in corporate tax planning, advisory work, and tax audit and investigation matters.
Adeline was awarded the "Indirect Tax Practice Leader of the Year" at the International Tax Review Asia Pacific Awards 2022 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Tax by Legal 500 Asia Pacific. Her tax practice was also named the "Tax and Trusts Law Firm of the Year" by the Asian Legal Business Malaysia Law Awards in both 2020 and 2021. She is ranked as a Band 1 practitioner for Tax by Chambers Asia Pacific and for Private Wealth Law by the Chambers High Net Worth Guide. Clients commend her as "a leading tax lawyer" and a "standout name in the private wealth market in Malaysia" in the Chambers Asia Pacific guides. In an interview with Chambers Asia Pacific, a client highlighted that "Adeline Wong has excellent technical capabilities and a strong ability to provide a pragmatic lens on the situation". She is also recognised as a Highly Regarded practitioner and Women in Tax Leader for Tax Controversy and Indirect Tax by International Tax Review.
She has presented at both domestic and international tax conferences, including events organised by the Tax Executive Institute in the US, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners in Singapore, and Bloomberg BNA's Global Transfer Pricing Conference in Shanghai. She is also a regular contributor to established publications on tax-related legislation and developments in Malaysia, such as Bloomberg BNA and the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation.
Practice Focus
Adeline has extensive experience in tax planning and tax advisory for local, regional and cross-border corporate exercises. These include joint ventures, new operations, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and downsizing, among others. She has advised on matters relating to tax disputes and controversies, transfer pricing, tax credit, franking credit, reinvoicing, royalties, dividends, double tax treaties, withholding tax, tariff and customs, tax incentives, as well as matters relating to foreign trade and the WTO.
Adeline advises a broad range of clients, which include investment banks, other financial institutions and high net worth families, on tax, trust, and estate planning issues, with a focus on using onshore and offshore trust structures and other vehicles to help clients hold and transfer wealth. She also advises financial institutions that provide services to high net worth individuals on securities as well as corporate and regulatory issues in relation to their operations in Malaysia.
Representative Legal Matters
- Successfully represented various clients in tax incentive negotiations with the Ministry of International Trade and Industries, Malaysian Industrial Development Authority, Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs as well as negotiations involving with the Ministry of Finance.
- Assisted a major German automotive manufacturer to set up its export control and sanctions compliance program in Malaysia. We established written policies, processes and IT-solutions required to ensure compliance with export control and sanction requirements of Malaysia, EU and US in an effective yet business-friendly manner.
- Successfully represented a large American multinational company that manufactures electronics test and measurement equipment and software in an unprecedented and landmark tax appeal at the Court of Appeal involving a sale of intellectual property rights in the form of technical knowhow by the client to its related company for the sum of MYR 821.6 million.
- Successfully represented an American information technology products and services distributor in a service tax audit dispute with the IRB and Malaysian customs, securing the withdrawal of a MYR 12.17 million service tax assessment and MYR 4.87 million penalty relating to alleged imported taxable services.
- Advised a multinational technology company on service tax applicable on digital services provided to Malaysia customers, estimated service tax and penalties arising from various obligations under the Service Tax Act 2018. We successfully assisted the client in obtaining a remission of penalties.
- Advised a leading global payments platform on the Malaysian tax implications of its proposed expansion into Southeast Asia, including withholding tax, service tax, corporate income tax and permanent establishment considerations arising from its cross-border payment and settlement model.
- Successfully represented the regional logistics hub of a leading German luxury automotive manufacturer in a stamp duty dispute, securing the reduction of a MYR 8.7 million assessment on a master loan agreement to approximately MYR 8,777, through the application of stamp duty remission provisions.
- Advised an American multinational corporation on the direct and indirect tax issues of their USD 4.3 billion investment with the power unit of a Malaysian conglomerate to develop artificial intelligence cloud and supercomputer infrastructure in Malaysia.
- Advised a decentralised Web3 protocol on the Malaysian and cross border tax implications of its token issuance lifecycle and corporate restructuring, including income tax treatment, employer employee compliance, token liquidation events, and the application of badges of trade, capital versus revenue principles, and capital gains tax.
- Acted for a Forbes-listed founder and controlling shareholder of a Malaysian public-listed group on the establishment and implementation of a cross-border succession and wealth preservation structure.
Professional Honors
- Ranked Band 1 for Tax by Chambers Asia Pacific
- Ranked Band 1 for Private Wealth Law by Chambers High Net Worth Guide
- Listed in the Hall of Fame for Tax by Legal 500 Asia Pacific
- Listed as Highly Regarded and Women in Tax for Tax Controversy and Indirect Tax by International Tax Review
- Leading Individual for Tax by Legal 500 Asia Pacific (2018–2022)
- Listed in the Tax Leaders Expert Guides 2020 by International Tax Review
- Winner of "Lawyer of the Year" by Euromoney Women in Business Law Awards Asia Pacific in 2018 and 2020
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Tax Committee of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry - Member
- Academy of Law in Singapore
- Australian Society of Accountants
- Malaysian Institute of Taxation - Member
Admissions
- Malaysia (1997)
- Sarawak~Malaysia (1992)
- New South Wales~Australia (1990)
Education
- University of New South Wales (LL.B.) (1990)
- University of New South Wales (Bachelor of Commerce) (1988)
Languages
- English
- Malay
Previous Offices
- Singapore
- Sydney