Ee Leen is a tax lawyer who recently returned to legal practice after some years as a tax consultant in the International Tax and Transaction Services practice of one of the Big 4 accounting firms in Kuala Lumpur. She is well-versed in various areas of Malaysian tax laws, particularly in corporate income tax, real property gains tax and stamp duty.

In the course of her earlier years in legal practice, Ee Leen had been involved in numerous litigation cases, particularly, tax appeal cases before the Special Commissioners of Income Tax, High Court and Court of Appeal. The reported cases in which she played a key role involved crucial tax issues such as issues pertaining to disallowance of pioneer incentive claims on purported non-compliance of conditions, reinvestment allowance claims during trial run periods, deductibility of employee share option scheme charges by a subsidiary company as well as capital vs revenue issues involving compensation payments upon the termination of a contract.

She has a strong background in tax technical work and has frequently rendered opinions to both taxpayers and tax consultants. During her time as a tax consultant, she has advised multinational corporations on cross-border transactional tax issues, which involved Malaysian corporate income tax, stamp duty, real property gains tax as well as permanent establishment and withholding tax issues. Other tax issues which she is experienced in advising on include issues relating to asset-backed securitisation transaction structures, with a focus on the applicability of the recently introduced earning stripping rules (ESR) and withholding tax exemptions to such structures, as well as the potential tax implications arising from a proposed family trust.

In addition to her tax advisory work, Ee Leen has represented clients in various tax audits and investigations which tackled issues such as capital vs revenue, disallowance of incentive claims for purported non-compliance of incentive conditions and the applicability of group relief claims. She has also submitted applications and appeals on behalf of clients to the tax authorities and Ministry of Finance to clarify on key tax technical issues from which positive outcomes were obtained on behalf of clients.

Prior to diverging into tax consultancy practice, Ee Leen was ranked as a “Next Generation Lawyer” in the practice area of Tax by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2018. She has been listed as a “Recommended Lawyer” and as a “Next Generation Partner” in the 2023 and 2024 publications respectively of The Legal 500 Asia Pacific.

Ee Leen is an Associate member of the Chartered Tax Institute of Malaysia.

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION & MEMBERSHIP

• Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya
• Admitted to the Malaysian Bar: 26th June, 2009
• Associate of the Chartered Tax Institute of Malaysia (CTIM)