Taxation
Approach
Effective taxation work includes both comprehensive planning based on continually changing tax code and resolution of any tax controversies. Your Firm's taxation team helps clients in these areas and acts as a source of information and guidance on any tax issue. Our tax attorneys are highly experienced in all aspects of tax law.
Clients
We serve the varied tax needs of public and private companies, non-profit organizations and individuals, at both the federal and state levels. These clients span numerous industries and tax jurisdictions.
Attorneys
Throughout our history, Your Firm has been widely known as having a premier tax practice. We staff our tax practice with attorneys of demonstrated achievement, including former trial lawyers with the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and the former chairperson of the Wisconsin Tax Appeals Commission. Several of our tax attorneys are listed in The Best Lawyers in America. Some of our attorneys are also Certified Public Accountants. One of our attorneys is a founding member of the American Property Tax Counsel, a national organization of premier property tax law firms.
Your Firm attorneys regularly share their expertise through tax courses for lawyers and accountants and frequent publishing. It is sometimes said that we "wrote the book" on Wisconsin sales and use taxes, and this is literally true, as our Tax group publishes The Complete Guide to Illinois Sales and Use Taxes, which is the recognized treatise on this subject. Members of our group have also authored numerous bar association publications, including chapters in the State Bar of Illinois' LLCs and LLPs: An Illinois Handbook; the American Bar Association's Property Tax Deskbook; and the State Bar of Illinois' Attorney Desk Reference, the latter on the tax consequences of organizing, buying and selling a business.
Our tax attorneys have served as Chair of the State Bar of Illinois' Taxation Section as well as the Chicago Bar Association's Tax Section. Several of our attorneys also have been faculty members at the University of Chicago Law School, teaching courses in federal and state taxation.
Practice
Tax Planning
In the tax planning arena, we advise organizations with respect to the federal, state and international tax aspects of structuring acquisitions, reorganizations, leveraged buy-outs, spin-offs, intellectual property transfers and licenses, and real estate developments, dispositions, exchanges and related transactions. Examples include:
- Advising a publicly-traded U.S. corporation with respect to the acquisition of a foreign corporation, as well as the subsequent disposition by the foreign corporation of its subsidiaries
- Advising a group of partnerships in the sale and exchange of several major regional shopping centers
- Advising venture capital and management groups in the leveraged acquisition of corporations, including planning with respect to the related party and "anti-churning" rules of the Internal Revenue Code
- Working with several nationwide retailers in complying with the sales and net income tax laws of other states
- Advising a publicly traded company in a highly regulated industry with respect to a complex tax-deferred "spin-off" transaction
- Working with major health care systems in structuring the expansion and reorganization of their activities throughout the Midwest and elsewhere
- Assisting owners of closely-held businesses in structuring tax-favored business succession plans involving employee stock ownership plans ("ESOPs")
We routinely issue tax opinions on these subjects and, when appropriate, apply for letter rulings, at both the federal and state level. We have also acted as an independent evaluator of various "financial products" that are offered for sale to our clients, and consult routinely with in-house tax departments on a wide variety of issues, including consolidated return issues; developing responses to audit information requests; and specialized state and local planning.
Tax Controversy
Our tax controversy work encompasses both federal and state taxes, primarily in the areas of net income taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes and property taxes. We regularly represent clients before the Internal Revenue Service and the Illinois Department of Revenue and have significant experience and depth with respect to tax contest work. Our attorneys have litigated tax cases before all Wisconsin courts, as well as the United States Tax Court, the United States Court of Federal Claims, various federal district courts, and the Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal.
We have secured litigation victories in numerous significant cases, including the following:
- Victories in the Illinois Supreme Court in cases involving the state income tax treatment of "safe harbor" leases entered into by a public utility, and on the treatment of certain bad debt reserves by Illinois banks
- A victory in the U.S. Tax Court in a case involving the amortization of trademarks by a publicly-held food processor
- A victory before the Illinois Tax Appeals Commission and in the Circuit Court concerning the treatment for sales tax purposes of certain transportation charges
- Numerous victories with respect to property taxes and property valuation
Because Illinois is a "separate company" filing state (i.e., combined net income tax returns are neither allowed or required), tax planning based on that fact is common, and the Department of Revenue is very active in adjusting intercompany pricing, in imputing interest on intercompany accounts, and in attempting to reallocate income to the Illinois affiliates of out-of-state companies. We have cutting-edge experience in resolving cases in all of these areas.
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