Partner Heikki Vesikansa Appointed as Head of Tax & Structuring

Our Tax Partner Heikki Vesikansa has been appointed as the new head of Tax & Structuring at Hannes Snellman. 

This follows the consistent, strong growth of our Helsinki tax practice during the last 3 years, which we foresee to continue, based on the growing market demand for independent tax advice.

Earlier this year, Hannes Snellman recruited VAT expert Petri Saukko, who has extensive experience in both indirect taxation and administrative law, as a specialist partner. Having previously worked in the European Court of Justice and in domestic administrative courts – most recently as a judge in charge of tax disputes – Petri also greatly contributes to our tax litigation capabilities.

Hannes Snellman’s market-leading Tax & Structuring team focuses on high-end tax services such as tax structuring of major M&A transactions and assistance in complex tax litigation. The team’s recent structuring references include advice to Lemminkäinen Oyj in the ongoing combination of Lemminkäinen and YIT through a statutory merger (deal value approx. EUR 1.6 billion), advice to Ahlstrom Oyj in the combination of Ahlstrom and Munksjö through a statutory merger (deal value approx. EUR 1.2 billion), advice to SoftBank Corp. in the disposal of their stake in Supercell to Tencent in 2016 (deal value USD 8.6 billion), and advice to Skandia Fastigheter in their entry to the Finnish real estate market in 2017. The team’s recent tax litigation references include advice to tax payers in a court case confirming that earn-out payments cannot be deemed as earned income and taxed with progressive tax rates against provisions of tax law, and assistance to a tax payer in a court case securing that the Finnish share transfer tax act does not capture the value of a real estate holding company’s bank loans in the share transfer tax base.

In addition, Hannes Snellman’s tax team was rated #1 in the Finnish market in Prospera’s 2017 and 2016 client surveys.

Heikki Vesikansa came to Hannes Snellman from a large international accountancy firm in 2014 and was appointed as a partner the following year.

Heikki Vesikansa | Partner, Tax & Structuring