Greg Neill

Greg is a highly experienced tax lawyer and provides advice on a broad range of New Zealand tax matters for large corporates, financial institutions and private businesses based in New Zealand and offshore. His primary expertise includes M&A, private equity, banking and corporate finance, as well as land transactions, emissions trading, private wealth investment and general corporate tax.

Greg has experience advising on tax matters across a range of industries and recent transactions include:

• Advising QIC Private Capital on the acquisition of 50% of Vector Limited's New Zealand and Australian metering business.
• Advising Vulcan Steel and Takutai Limited on the unconditional gift of shares to eligible employees of Vulcan.
• Advising on various corporate and structured finance transactions, including securitisations, debt capital markets issuances, syndicated loans and the establishment of private credit funds.
• Advising KiwiRail on the tax aspects of the construction and acquisition of two new Cook Strait ferries for NZ$551m from Korean shipyard Hyundai Mipo Dockyard.
• Advising Pacific Equity Partners on the sale of Evolution Healthcare to the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC).
• Advising Pacific Equity Partners on the acquisition of Healthe Care's surgical business operating in Australia and New Zealand.
• Advising Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) on the NZ tax aspects of its takeover by way of scheme of arrangement of Afterpay (including Afterpay NZ).
• Advising Kiwi Wealth on its sale of online investment platform Hatch to FNZ.
• Advising Beijing Capital Group on the sale of Waste Management New Zealand to Igneo Infrastructure Partners.
• Advising Ares Management LLC in relation to its debt funding and equity investment for the acquisition of the Gull business from Ampol Limited.
• The establishment of DrylandCarbon, a limited partnership co-investment structure in carbon forestry between Air New Zealand, Contact Energy, Genesis Energy and Z Energy.
• Advising Origin Capital Partners on the establishment of a new private equity fund seeking to invest $50-$100 million in SunGold kiwifruit.
• Equity capital raises and investment structuring for various private businesses and investment companies involving Booster Tahi Limited Partnership, Tessera Capital and Craigmore Farming.
• Advising  Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated on the establishment of K3 Kahungunu Property, a specialist Māori property development and trade skills entity.
• Employee share schemes and management buy-outs for various clients including listed companies and large private businesses.
• Tax advice for various high net worth individuals regarding New Zealand tax residence issues and taxation of private wealth investment.
• Various binding ruling applications for corporates and private businesses, including recent rulings on R&M expenditure and the provision of a performance guarantee in the construction industry.

 
Greg has also been part of the legal teams advising on several unique transactions during his career including the corporate demerger of Chorus and Spark, the participation of The Royal Bank of Scotland plc in the UK government’s “Asset Protection Scheme” and the administration of Lehman Brothers International Europe.

LLB, BCA (Accounting and Commercial Law), Victoria University of Wellington.

Greg is recognised by the Best Lawyers® 2024 Guide and the Legal 500 Asia Pacific Guide for Tax Law in New Zealand.

He is a member of the International Fiscal Association and the taxation committee of the NZ Financial Services Council.

Greg also regularly produces articles on tax matters including an article on the new tax rules applying to the sale of commercial assets (see here), an article on the new tax disclosure requirements for overseas investment (see here), an article on the tax treatment of emissions units or "carbon credits" (see here), and an article on the establishment of build-to-rent as a specific and recognised asset class (see here).

Greg returned to Russell McVeagh and became a Tax partner in 2021. He was admitted to practice in New Zealand in 2002 and to practice in England and Wales in 2009.