Stephen Lukey is a Christchurch-based barrister sole with over twenty years specialising in tax law. He was admitted to the bar in May 1996, spending two and a half years combining criminal defence work with editing the Smart Tax database for Thomson Reuters, before joining Inland Revenue as a solicitor. From 2003 he led a team of solicitors specialising in complex tax evasion and avoidance cases, including the high-profile ACTONZ, Skinner and Rowley, and O'Connor cases, and also progressed technical tax disputes and litigated tax debt and child support matters.
While at Inland Revenue, Stephen helped introduce its in-house prosecution function, appearing in court in numerous tax prosecutions and cases involving Inland Revenue's search and inquiry powers. From 2004 he was convenor of Inland Revenue's National Prosecution Group, and from 2012 he was legal lead on Inland Revenue's hospitality project targeting cash suppression by hospitality businesses, concluding civil settlements, prosecuting cases in court, and training Inland Revenue staff. He joined the bar as a barrister sole in November 2017.
Today, Stephen assists clients facing IRD audits, tax prosecutions, tax debt disputes, and complex tax technical and avoidance disputes, as well as criminal and regulatory prosecutions with particular expertise in financial crime and fraud. He also advises on child support matters and employment law, especially cases arising from the Inland Revenue restructure, drawing on more than 10 years as a union representative at Inland Revenue. Outside law, Stephen is a keen trail runner and mountaineer who has competed in ultramarathons around the world, and a chess player who holds the FIDE Master title and has represented New Zealand at the World Chess Olympiad, Asian Teams Championship, and Asian Individual Championship.
Few lawyers understand how Inland Revenue builds a case from the inside quite like Stephen Lukey. Admitted to the bar in May 1996, he spent his early career combining criminal defence law with editing the Smart Tax database for Thomson Reuters, before joining Inland Revenue as a solicitor — a move that set the direction for the rest of his career.
From 2003, Stephen led a team of solicitors at Inland Revenue specialising in complex tax evasion and avoidance cases, including the high-profile ACTONZ, Skinner and Rowley, and O'Connor cases. He also progressed technical tax disputes and litigated tax debt and child support matters. Part of his role involved helping introduce Inland Revenue's in-house prosecution function, and he appeared in court in numerous tax prosecutions and cases involving IRD's search and inquiry powers. From 2004 he was convenor of Inland Revenue's National Prosecution Group, and from 2012 he led the legal side of IRD's hospitality project — the agency's focused effort to tackle cash suppression, or 'cash skimming,' by hospitality businesses. In that role he concluded civil settlements, prosecuted cases in court, and trained Inland Revenue's own investigations and legal staff.
Stephen joined the bar as a barrister sole in November 2017, bringing that insider's understanding of how Inland Revenue investigates and prosecutes to clients on the other side of the table. His tax law practice now covers the full range of contested tax matters: hospitality and small business cash suppression audits, PAYE prosecutions, multi-revenue tax audits, tax avoidance disputes involving structures like trading trusts and employee share schemes, complex technical disputes, and both negotiating and litigating tax debt. He also has substantial experience with Inland Revenue's search and inquiry powers, including large-scale cases involving legal privilege issues across vast amounts of company data.
Stephen's criminal law practice draws on the same financial crime and fraud expertise built up over years of tax prosecutions, extending to other fraud prosecutions brought by agencies like Work and Income New Zealand and ACC, litigation assistance for major regulatory cases alongside Queens Counsel, internal fraud investigations for organisations, and general criminal matters. On the employment side, more than a decade as a union representative at Inland Revenue gives him particular insight into employment law issues arising from the Inland Revenue restructure, alongside general employment disputes — an area where he offers capped fee arrangements at each stage of a case, from lodging a grievance through to Employment Relations Authority proceedings.
Across all of these areas, Stephen's approach centres on early, informed engagement. Whether it's a hospitality business facing a cash suppression audit, a taxpayer negotiating a tax debt, or someone caught up in Inland Revenue's more intrusive search powers, his site repeatedly makes the same point: the earlier a specialist is brought in, the better the odds of a manageable outcome rather than a drawn-out fight.
Outside legal practice, Stephen is a serious trail runner and mountaineer who has competed in ultramarathons both in New Zealand and internationally. He's also an accomplished chess player, holding New Zealand titles in rapid and speed chess and the FIDE Master title, and has represented New Zealand at the World Chess Olympiad, the Asian Teams Championship, and the Asian Individual Championship — a level of discipline and strategic thinking that mirrors the demands of his tax and criminal law practice.
Based in Christchurch, Stephen is reachable by phone or email during office hours, 8.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, for anyone facing an IRD dispute, a criminal prosecution, or an employment or child support matter.