Simon Akozu
Asia-Pacific Guide 2025
Up and Coming : Tax
Up and Coming
About
Provided by Simon Akozu
Practice Areas
Simon is a tax specialist, focused on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), infrastructure projects, financing arrangements, and crypto assets.
Simon has broad experience managing tax projects across a wide range of industries. His clients include leading New Zealand corporates, multinationals, financial institutions, and high net worth individuals. Simon is also working with a range of start-ups in the crypto asset space.
He works closely with clients to understand their objectives, and design and implement effective commercial solutions. He works with clients on all stages of projects, advising on structuring, financial modelling, and documentation. He regularly obtains favourable tax rulings for clients on complex arrangements, and he also advises clients on voluntary disclosures and tax disputes.
Tax is a complex area of law, and Simon prides himself on distilling complex issues into actionable choices. Simon partners with clients to workshop ideas and concepts, collaborating closely with them to deliver advice in forms that suit their needs.
Simon has a keen interest in tax policy. He regularly writes and presents on new developments in tax, including the taxation of crypto assets. He is a contributor to Bloomberg Tax and is a co-author of Bloomberg’s New Zealand country guide.
Chambers Review
Asia-Pacific
Simon Akozu is based in MinterEllisonRuddWatts's Auckland office. He assists on the tax aspects of transactional matters and inbound and outbound investments, with particular experience in the infrastructure sector.
Strengths
Provided by Chambers
"I thoroughly enjoyed working with Simon. He was responsive at all times and had an excellent grasp of the issues."
"Simon provides accurate, timely, commercial and value-for-money tax advice."
"I thoroughly enjoyed working with Simon. He was responsive at all times and had an excellent grasp of the issues."
"Simon provides accurate, timely, commercial and value-for-money tax advice."