Our Tax Law attorneys are active in all stages of business formation and operation, beginning with planning and selecting legal entity structures appropriate not only for our clients’ short-term objectives for investing in and/or operating real estate or other active businesses but also for their long-term objectives for exiting the business. We represent taxable corporations (both public and privately held) and pass-through entities such as S corporations, general and limited partnerships, limited liability companies and joint ventures (and the shareholders, partners, members, and participants in those entities), and we have expertise in real estate syndications.

Our tax attorneys work individually and with other attorneys in the firm to represent clients in various business transactions. By involving our tax attorneys early in the planning process, we are able to structure transactions in a tax-efficient manner and avoid pitfalls that, if not discovered until later, would jeopardize the entire transaction or, at a minimum, require that the transaction be restructured with the attendant delays and increased costs that inevitably result. We provide tax advice in a broad range of corporate matters and transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, public stock and debt offerings (including tax-exempt bonds), corporate stock redemptions, corporate dividend planning, pass-through Subchapter S corporation planning, corporate spin-offs, and other business divisions, numerous forms of structured tax-free corporate reorganizations and corporate liquidations. We have experience representing clients in complex debt restructuring, net operating loss carryforward planning, tax analysis of technology transfers, tax consequences of corporate shareholders agreements and consolidated return planning for affiliated corporations. We have extensive experience in the tax aspects of equipment leasing, having for many years represented airlines and other lessees and lessors in leveraged lease and operating lease transactions totaling billions of dollars in value.

In the international area, our tax attorneys frequently advise clients with respect to both “inbound” transactions involving investments by foreign persons in the United States and in “outbound” transactions involving the international operations of domestic companies.

Our tax attorneys also provide advice and counsel on employee compensation and benefits matters, such as ERISA, pension and profit-sharing plans, stock options and other forms of incentive compensation, other forms of deferred compensation, “golden parachute” issues and income tax and employment tax withholding matters. We represent many tax-exempt organizations, both with respect to the exemption application process as well as ongoing operational and compliance matters (such as required information disclosure) and unrelated business taxable income issues. In addition, we advise clients in matters related to trusts and estates, provide individual clients with counsel on wealth transfer and estate planning, and prepare wills, trusts, and related instruments. We also represent clients in a broad range of federal income, employment, estate, and gift tax matters in administrative proceedings before the Internal Revenue Service and in litigation before the United States Tax Court and other federal courts.

SGR’s tax attorneys provide advice with respect to a wide range of state and local income, sales and property tax matters, including planning for tax-efficient multi-state operations, and we represent clients in state and local tax matters in administrative proceedings before state revenue departments and in litigation before state and federal courts.