The new office will be located in Raffles Place in Singapore’s financial district and is scheduled to open its doors in May 2012, taking Withers’ international office network to ten.

The Singapore team will includeJay Krause, a US qualified partner specialising in servicing private clients, trust companies and financial institutions. 

Krause will head Withers wealth planning team in Asia. He is credited with being one of the leaders on the impact of US IRS initiatives like the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and voluntary disclosure. Krause will be joined by Philip Munro, a UK and Hong Kong private client tax, trust and estates expert. Further additions will be made in the coming months, said the firm in a statement.

“Recent developments in international taxpayer information exchange have created an overwhelming demand for our US and international tax expertise in Singapore, as well as its South East Asian neighbours such as Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as India and Australia. This need is increasing daily as more and more Asian institutions begin to come to grips with the far reaching effects of the new US FATCA legislation, requiring financial institutions and trust companies, among others, to identify their US clients and forward their details to local or US tax authorities,” said Krause.

“The Singapore launch illustrates a growing need for integrated legal advice on complex cross-border tax matters amongst Withers’ global high net worth client-base, comprised of individuals and families, their businesses, and the institutions that serve them,” said the firm in a statement. Withers added that individuals or institutions seeking tax and trust legal advice are currently under-served in South East Asia.

Withers opened its first Asia office in Hong Kong in 2008. The Singapore office opening is subject to regulatory approval.