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Yamamoto Hideyuki

Hideyuki Yamamoto

Senior Counsel
Baker & McKenzie (Gaikokuho Joint Enterprise)

Biography

Hideyuki Yamamoto is a member of the Firm's Tax and Transfer Pricing Practice Group in Tokyo and previously worked at the Firm's Washington office. He advises mainly on dispute-related matters, including tax litigation. Prior to joining Baker McKenzie, Hideyuki was engaged for several years as a CPA at one of Japan's largest accounting firms. He has been selected to serve as a member of the National Bar Examination Committee (Tax Law) by the Ministry of Justice. Hideyuki has held a succession of positions in the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, including member of the Taxation Committee, chairman of the Tax Procedure and Tax Dispute Division and vice chairman of the project team considering reforms to the Act on General Rules for National Tax. He has also served as chairman of the Tokyo Bar Association Tax Committee. He is a member of the Expert Committee on Strengthening the Governance of International Sports Events in Tokyo.

Practice Focus

Hideyuki focuses on the junctions between law, accounting and taxation. He is very experienced in representing taxpayers, not just in litigation, but in the pre-litigation steps of filing tax appeals and reviewing applications. He also handles a wide range of transfer pricing issues, including applications for advance pricing agreements and mutual agreement procedures. In addition to taxation, Hideyuki handles litigation concerning customs, cross-border disputes and consultations pertaining to civil commercial disputes, as well as dispute resolution and general corporate law matters.

Representative Legal Matters

  • Represented a Luxembourg corporation in a case in which mutual agreement was not reached between Japan and Luxembourg regarding the interpretation of a tax treaty between the two countries on the reduced tax rate for dividends of parent-subsidiary companies. In the first case of its kind, Hideyuki successfully claimed a refund by claiming application of the provision applicable to deemed dividends from a non-qualified split-off.
  • Acted for a foreign corporation in a successful action seeking revocation of a tax reassessment on derivatives transactions.
  • Acted as lead counsel for Adobe Systems in a successful action seeking revocation of a transfer pricing tax reassessment.
  • Represented a client in a successful action seeking cancellation of a notice disposition on grounds of no cause against a request for correction seeking application of a special deduction on income from an assignment of residential property.
  • Represented a Japanese electronics component company in a successful administrative appeal seeking revocation of a transfer pricing tax reassessment.
  • Acted for a chemical manufacturer in a partially successful review application seeking revocation of a transfer price tax reassessment. 
  • Acted for an electronics manufacturer in a partially successful review application seeking revocation of a transfer price tax reassessment.
  • Acted for a Japanese corporation in a successful appeal to the National Tax Tribunal seeking revocation of all tax imposed on a donation made to a Southeast Asian public corporation in relation to the sale of a system based on international bidding.
  • Acted for a Japanese corporation in a successful administrative appeal seeking revocation of the entire tax assessment imposed on a donation made in relation to the acquisition of resource development interests in Southeast Asia.

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • Japan Institute of Certified Public Accountants
  • Tokyo Bar Association
  • Tokyo Certified Public Tax Accountants' Association
  • Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Japan
  • Japan Tax Jurisprudence Association - Board member
  • Japan Tax Litigation Society - Board member
  • Japan Governance Research Association - Member

Admissions

  • Certified Fraud Examiner~Japan (2023)
  • Licensed Tax Attorney (Zeirishi)~Japan (1995)
  • Japan (1994)
  • Certified Public Accountant~Japan (1989)

Education

  • University of Pennsylvania Law School (LL.M.) (1998)
  • Kyoto University (Bachelor of Economics) (1981)

Languages

  • English
  • Japanese

Previous Offices

  • Washington, DC

Publications

  • Co-author, National Tax Law Commentary: Tax Investigation Procedures, Nihon-horei, March 2023
  • "Reasonable Grounds for Additional Tax for Deficient Returns," Administration and Citizen Rights, Houritsu Bunka-sha, December 2011
  • "A case in which the disposition authority's calculation method was not deemed to constitute 'a method equivalent to the Resale Price Method' - the Adobe case," Practical Exposition of Tax Cases, Shinzansha Publisher, August 2011
  • Co-author, Study on Sozokuji-Seisan-Kazei, Dai-Ichi Hoki, 2006
  • Co-editor, Tax Law for Lawyers (5th edition), Tokyo Bar Association, 2006