Tax expert with extensive experience in tax advisory and disputes.

Hern Kuan has a wealth of experience in advising on income tax, goods and services tax, property tax, stamp duty and international taxation. He was a tax manager in big four accounting firms PwC and KPMG before joining the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), where he served as Chief Legal Officer for over a decade. After leaving the IRAS, he also headed a tax practice in a big four Singapore law firm, Rajah & Tann.

Hern Kuan often advises and represents clients on tax disputes, mainly with the Comptroller of Income Tax, the Comptroller of GST and Commissioner of Stamp Duties, such as alleged tax avoidance arrangements and additional buyers’ stamp duties. He also advises clients on domestic and international tax planning and structuring, including stamp duty relief, and also assisting clients in making advance ruling applications.

At IRAS, Hern Kuan led the legal team advised IRAS on legislation and tax crimes, and represented the Comptroller of Income Tax, the Chief Assessor and the Comptroller of Property Tax, and the Commissioner of Stamp Duties in leading cases involving tax on trading gains, tax avoidance, interest deduction claims, deductions in relation to commencement of business and exercise of discretion by the tax authorities.

Hern Kuan graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB, Hons) and a Masters of Laws (LLM) from the Queens College, University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He was also a lecturer at the NUS Faculty of Law and SIM University on international tax and tax planning. He continues to lecture at the Tax Academy of Singapore on its Advanced Tax Programme. He has published extensively on tax law and has co-written the Revenue and Taxation volume of Halsbury’s Laws of Singapore.

Hern Kuan is selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in Singapore for Tax Law since 2018 and was awarded “Best Lawyers (Lawyer of the Year) for Tax Law 2021” for Singapore.