José Palacios

José Palacios Pérez holds a Bachelor in Law from Complutense University of Madrid and two master’s in tax law from IE University, as well as being a member of the Madrid Bar Association.

He has spent his entire professional career at Garrigues. Until 2010, he was a partner in the taxation department of the Madrid office and head of international tax practice. He joined the firm in January 1983 as a specialist in international taxation, after a stint at a tax law firm. In 1986, he was temporarily transferred to the firm’s offices in The Hague and Brussels, where he also developed expertise in EU law. He has coordinated the firm’s international tax practice in Spain and has headed and been a member of several international groups, both within and outside the firm.

Specialised in advising multinational groups, mainly in the areas of international tax planning, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and transfer pricing, he has participated in numerous foreign investment processes in Spain, as well as in the international expansion of many Spanish companies. He has also advised various Spanish public and private entities on internationalisation matters.

Throughout his professional career, he has been acknowledged as one of the most highly regarded tax experts internationally, being featured on the Guide to the World’s Leading Tax Advisers in every edition between 1997 and 2010; International Tax Review in September 1998, June 2004, June 2005, and June 2006; World Tax in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2010; Tax Business in December 2004, 2005, and 2006; Tax Directors Handbook in 2009; and Mondaq, Chambers, International Legal 500, and Best Lawyers International in different years.

He is currently vice president of the Spanish Association of Financial Law (AEDF), the Spanish branch of the International Fiscal Association (IFA). He was a member of the Global Executive Committee of this institution for six years, from 2011 to 2017. He is also a member of the board of various companies and an entrepreneur and ‘business angel’ in the innovation and technology sector. Until 2020, he was a member of the National Council of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) and was previously a trustee secretary of the AECC Scientific Foundation.

José is the director of the Executive Programme in International Taxation at Centro de Estudios Garrigues. He lectures in international taxation for various programmes, both at Centro de Estudios Garrigues and at other institutions.

He is the co-author of ‘España como plataforma de actividad empresarial internacional’ (in English, ‘Spain as a Platform for International Business Activity’), which won the Círculo de Empresarios Award in 1998. He has also contributed to numerous specialist publications, including ‘Manual of International Taxation’ by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IEF) (first edition in 2001, second edition in 2004, and third edition in 2007); ‘Analysis of the Spanish-American Convention to Avoid Double Taxation’ by Gaceta Fiscal; and ‘International Taxation’ by Centro de Estudios Financieros (CEF) (second edition in 2005, third edition in 2007, fourth edition in 2010, and fifth edition in 2013). For many years, he was the coordinator of Garrigues’ annual ‘A Guide to Business in Spain’, published by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism. He has also authored numerous articles on tax law published in Spanish and foreign newspapers and magazines, including International Tax Review, European Taxation, Tax Business, The Journal of International Taxation, and European Law Office.

José is a frequent conference speaker at conferences on international taxation, both in Spain and abroad.