Shafi teaches tax law and is the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the department. His research interests include tax law, tax policymaking, international and European taxation, and biological insights into behavior and policymaking. Prior to joining the academia at Monash University, Shafi had been working for over 15 years at various positions including Deputy Commissioner and Additional Commissioner (Inland Revenue) in the tax administration (Federal Board of Revenue), specializing in tax enforcement, tax audits and tax policymaking. 

Shafi holds a PhD in Taxation from Monash Business School, and his doctoral thesis was entitled as "Could and should the European Union integrate Member States' income taxation systems?". He holds a Masters in Taxation Policy and Management from the Graduate School of Business & Commerce, Keio University, Tokyo, completed under the auspices of the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program. Shafi also holds M. Phil in Genetics and Masters in Biological Sciences from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. 

Shafi has attended a year-long Practicum on Taxation at the National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies, Tokyo and National Tax College Japan, specializing in international tax law, Japanese taxation and the Japanese tax culture through field visits of offices of the National Tax Agency Japan. He is also an attendee of the prestigious International Visitors Leadership Program offered by the U.S. State Department on a project tailored to study federal taxes at the Internal Revenue Service, Washington DC, state taxes in the New York City, and local/county taxation at the Oklahoma City, Sacramento and San Francisco. 

Shafi's current research projects include work on cross-border profit shifting and anti-tax avoidance measures, and studies at the intersection of European State aid policy and taxation of multinational enterprises.

Shafi's doctoral research paper was awarded as the best tax PhD paper by the Australasian Tax Teachers Association, and the International Fiscal Association (IFA Australian branch) also awarded him Graham Hill-IFA research prize in international/comparative taxation for 2015. He is a member of Australasian Tax Teachers Association, and contributes as correspondent to the Australian GST Journal on Asia Pacific tax developments.