Update: Michelle Reddington was appointed Chief Tax Counsel in March 2021. She previously worked as a partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and at Air New Zealand.

IRD Chief Tax Counsel Martin Smith has one of the most influential and largest in-house legal teams in the country under his management but remains a firmly under-the-radar operator.

Formerly a tax consulting partner in a major accounting practice in Sydney and Director of Taxation Research for Ernst & Young in New Zealand, he has degrees from Adelaide University and a Masters in Tax Law from Auckland.

Relishing a low profile, he nonetheless commands a powerful position astride one of the largest and most significant departments in the country, affecting taxpayers large and small. The IRD’s tax department is one of the largest in the country and its effect upon taxpayers, corporate policy, international tax law and other issues is almost unparalleled.