Kelly Stricklin-Coutinho

Kelly Stricklin-Coutinho is a barrister at 39 Essex Chambers, where she specialises in tax disputes, international tax and EU tax.

Her tax disputes experience includes litigation at every level of English court and tax tribunal, and cases before the CJEU. She has represented claimants in judicial review proceedings across a wide range of taxes, direct and indirect. She has acted in arbitral proceedings, including those with tax issues. Kelly has also acted on a number of high value enquiries in respect of both international tax issues and on domestic tax disputes, and on a number of high value settlements.

Kelly's clients include a broad range of multinationals, FTSE 100 and 250 companies, local authorities, government bodies, major insurers, high-net-worth individuals and SMEs.

Her experience includes the following.

High value tax enquiries on a number of issues, including controlled foreign corporations, debt cap, group and loss relief; double tax treaty disputes; advising on the compatibility of aspects of corporation taxes with state aid law; settlements; and restitution claims.

Representing a client in their complaint before the European Commission; acting in a proposed reference to the CJEU in respect of VAT avoidance and abuse; acting as junior counsel in a proposed group litigation order in respect of 300 claimants; advising in respect of compound interest claims; advising on VAT in respect of land and property; and claims for restitution.

Anti-dumping duty; import duty and VAT; environmental taxes (landfill tax, climate change levy, aggregates levy); IR35 and inheritance tax.

Kelly trained at the Directorate General for Taxation and Customs at the European Commission, in the direct tax policy analysis unit where she was involved in the proposal for and drafting of a proposed directive on double tax dispute resolution.

Prior to joining 39 Essex Chambers, she worked in the award winning team running the FII GLO (dividend tax), the CFC and Dividend GLO (CFCs and portfolio dividends), the Thin Cap GLO (thin cap and transfer pricing) and the Marks & Spencer (final losses) cases. She also advised on high-value tax enquiries. She has experience of working in a Big 4 firm.

Kelly is a visiting lecturer at King's College London. She convened the EU Tax Law course for a number of years and teaches on the Internal Market course

She is ranked in the Legal 500 for VAT, EU Law and Competition Law.