Joseph M. , JD, LLM, MBA, CPA | Andersen Tax LLC

Joe Calianno is a managing director in the US National Tax practice in the Washington D.C. office. He advises clients on all areas of international tax, including provisions related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and cross-border restructuring. Prior to joining Andersen, Joe spent several years as a partner at BDO and Grant Thornton, where he served as the International Technical Tax Practice Leader in both firm’s national tax offices.

Joe also previously served as Special Counsel to the Deputy Associate Chief Counsel (International) in the office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service. As Special Counsel, he was a technical advisor to the Associate and Deputy Associate Chief Counsel International and was involved in reviewing international tax regulations, revenue rulings, Notices, TAMs, and PLRs, and providing technical advice to the IRS field offices. He also practiced with PWC’s National Tax office and Miles & Stockbridge, a large law firm.

Joe has been a guest lecturer at New York University Law School in the Graduate Tax Program (International Business Transactions class) and an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown Law School in the Graduate Tax Program. Joe is a frequent speaker on international and corporate tax issues. He has spoken for organizations such as the ABA, AICPA, Atlas, BNA, DC Bar, Dallas Bar, Federal Bar, GW/IRS, Houston International Tax Forum, IFA, NYU Advanced International Tax Institute, Practising Law Institute, TEI, St. Louis International Tax Group, USD School of Law/Procopio International Tax Institute, Wall Street and World Trade Council tax conferences.

He has also published articles for national journals and organizations such as CCH Incorporated, International Tax Review, RIA’s Journal of International Taxation, Revue d’Intelligence Artificielle (RIA) Journal, Practising Law Institute, Tax Notes International, Tax Management International Journal, Tax Management Memorandum and The Tax Adviser.

Enrica Ma, Esq. | EY

Brandon C. Svetcov, Esq | EY

Thomas M. Giordano-Lascari, Esq. | Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP

Thomas Giordano-Lascari is a Partner in the Private Client Services Group with nearly two decades of experience in advising high-net-worth individuals and closely-held businesses with international income tax and estate planning issues.

Highly regarded for his expertise in representing global families with footprints in multiple jurisdictions, Thomas assists clients in structuring their worldwide assets to maximize family objectives and minimize income and transfer taxes. Thomas frequently aids clients with pre-immigration planning, foreign investments in the United States, U.S. residency planning and management, and expatriation planning. He frequently provides sought-after guidance on foreign trusts to foreign fiduciaries, U.S. beneficiaries, and grantors, addressing compliance obligations and tax consequences.

Thomas is Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners (STEP) and is listed in the Private Client Global Elite Directory, a list of elite professionals around the world. He also frequently speaks on international tax legislation and tax strategies relating to foreign trusts, outbound planning, and global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) inclusions, among other international income tax and estate planning topics.

Michael J.A Karlin, Esq. | Karlin & Peebles, LLP

Michael Karlin is a lawyer with over 45 years of experience advising corporate and individual clients on tax, estate planning and business matters involving a cross-border element. Michael began his career in London in 1975 as an articled clerk and assistant solicitor at the firm of D.J. Freeman & Co. (now part of Locke Lord LLP). He was admitted as a solicitor in 1977. In 1980, he became a member of the California Bar and he has resided in California ever since. After three years with Gelles, Singer & Johnson, a boutique private client firm in Los Angeles, he became an associate and then a partner of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. He then spent three years (1997-2000) as a principal in the international tax services group of KPMG, before starting his own firm in 2001. That firm is now part of Karlin & Peebles, LLP, co-founded in 2007 by Michael together with Jane Peebles, a well-known domestic and international estate planner and expert on cross-border philanthropy. Michael’s practice often overlaps with Jane’s and they, as well as three younger partners, work closely together on many matters.

Private client work was always a part of Michael’s practice and it became a significant focus after he started his own firm. Michael advises individuals and families from abroad who invest in or move to the United States as well as U.S. individuals and families who invest and move abroad, including the ever-increasing regulatory and reporting obligations associated with such activities. Pre-immigration and expatriation planning are an important part of his practice. He also advises individuals and closely held businesses on the tax and business aspects of operating outside their home jurisdiction. He has helped to establish corporations, companies, partnerships and joint ventures in many parts of the world and worked extensively on foreign and domestic trusts. In recent years, he has helped many taxpayers deal with the tax and reporting consequences of foreign financial accounts and holdings, including through offshore voluntary disclosures, streamlined disclosures, and other ways of handling non-compliance.

Michael has been an active member of various professional organizations, including the American Bar Association, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, the USC Institute on Federal Taxation, the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He was elected in 2020 as a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. He has spoken on many occasions to those and other groups and he also is a prolific contributor of articles to professional publications, which have included the Tax Notes, the Tax Lawyer, the Journal of International Taxation, Tax Management International Journal and Major Tax Planning. Over the years, he has submitted or participated in the submission of many comments on tax legislation, regulations and tax reform and in 2020 started and led a national group that obtained relief from the IRS on the application of U.S. tax residence rules for non-citizens stranded in the United States because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael was educated at St. Paul’s School, London as well as schools in Israel, New York, Lisbon and Paris. He is a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge University (B.A. (Hons.), History and Law, 1973; M.A., 1977).

Michael has been married since 1973 to Fiona Karlin. They have two children, born in 1983 and 1985. He has been active for many years as a youth soccer coach, referee and instructor in American Youth Soccer Organization Region 76 (Beverly Hills) and in other nonprofit organizations, including Invertigo Dance Theatre, of which he has served as the Board Chair and Treasurer. He is also the founder and current or past webmaster of the websites of AYSO Region 76, AYSO Area 1-P and the Docent Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Michael is fluent in French and conversant in several other European languages. For several years, he has been learning Japanese – compared to which he considers international tax to be trivially easy.

William S. Dixon, Esq. | Citigroup Global Markets

Sam K. Kaywood, Esq. | Alston & Bird LLP

Sam Kaywood is a partner in the Federal & International Tax Group and a co-chair of the International Team. Sam concentrates his practice on federal income tax and international tax, including cross-border M&A and joint ventures, as well as in-bound investments into the U.S. Sam has worked on virtually all forms of cross-border investments, with substantial experience in Canada, Europe, China, and Latin America. He is particularly active in structuring investments and acquisitions in Latin America, including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile.

Sam is a frequent author and speaker on international tax topics, including those related to Latin America. He has spoken before numerous professional organizations, such as the International Bar Association, International Fiscal Association, American Bar Association Tax Section, Tax Executives Institute, and the Atlanta Tax Forum Georgia Federal Tax Conference and has given speeches in cities across the country and in several foreign countries. Sam is listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business since 2006, Chambers Global since 2011, and The Best Lawyers in America© for Tax, which also named him “Lawyer of the Year” in Tax Law for 2021. He was the chair of the ABA Tax Section Committee on U.S. Activities of Foreigners & Tax Treaties and active with the International Fiscal Association. Sam is an adjunct professor at Emory University School of Law, where he teaches International Tax.

William B. Sherman, Esq. | Holland & Knight LLP

William B. Sherman is a partner in Holland & Knight’s Miami and Fort Lauderdale offices. Mr. Sherman concentrates his practice in the area of domestic and international taxation. He provides sophisticated tax planning for mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, joint ventures and investments for clients in diverse industries, such as private equity, healthcare, hospitality, petrochemicals, aluminum, real estate, transportation, telecommunications, retailing, investment management, pharmaceuticals and numerous others. In addition, Mr. Sherman has experience in a broad range of transactions involving United States investment overseas, foreign investment in the U.S., as well as international, federal, state and local taxation issues involving structuring investment management funds, corporate reorganizations, partnerships, equipment leasing, Subchapter S, executive compensation, stock options, and trusts and estates.

Mr. Sherman is a well known lecturer and chairs the New York University’s Summer Institute in Taxation’s Introductory and Advanced International Tax Seminars and its Institute on Federal Taxation International Tax Program. For 12 years, Mr. Sherman was an adjunct professor of Tax Law at the University of Miami, Graduate Tax Program. He is admitted to practice in New York and Florida and has served on numerous panels with The Florida Bar and the American Bar Association, where he is a past chair of the American Bar Association’s Tax Section Committee on U.S. Activities of Foreigners and Tax Treaties.

Micah J. Gibson, Esq. | PwC

J.P. Gregorcy, CPA | PwC

Alan I. Appel, Esq. | New York Law School

Alan I. Appel specializes in international and domestic tax planning involving taxation of mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, and limited liability companies, as well as tax controversy matters. Prior to joining New York Law School, Professor Appel began his career as a trial attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C. and New York City. On behalf of the American Bar Association (ABA) Tax Section, Professor Appel had the primary responsibility for drafting and submitting comments to the U.S. Treasury Department and IRS concerning the scope of the guidance provided by proposed regulations under Section 1446 of the Internal Revenue Code. He was also asked by the Office of the Chief Counsel to train its attorneys on this issue. Professor Appel published four articles on the Section 1446 regulations in The Journal of International Taxation,Tax Management Memorandum, and the Tax Management International Journal.

Professor Appel is on the Board of Advisors for the Journal of International Taxation. He has published articles in Tax Notes, Tax Notes Today, Tax Notes State, Tax Notes International, The Journal of Taxation, Tax Management Memorandum, Tax Management International Journal, The Journal of International Taxation, the New York Law Journal, and the Westchester Bar Journal. He was formerly Council Director of the U.S. Activities of Foreigners and Tax Treaties Committee, the Foreign Activities of U.S. Taxpayers Committee, the Transfer Pricing Committee, and the Foreign Lawyers Forum, all committees of the ABA Tax Section. He was also the Chair of the U.S. Activities of Foreigners and Tax Treaties Committee of the ABA Tax Section. He is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.

Professor Appel has appeared on radio and television to discuss income tax issues. He was featured in “Taxpayers Strained by New FATCA Requirements” in AccountingToday.com, a leading provider of online business news for the tax and accounting community, concerning the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act’s new requirements.

Professor Appel began his career in academia as an adjunct professor at NYLS in 2009 and joined the faculty full-time in 2013. He joined NYLS after spending 13 years as Counsel at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP (formerly Bryan Cave LLP).

Heather Ripley, Esq. | Alston & Bird LLP

Heather Ripley is a partner in Alston & Bird’s Federal & International Tax Group and a member of the firm’s REITs and Real Estate Funds tax team. She counsels U.S. and foreign business entities and high-net-worth individuals on tax-efficient structuring for their U.S. and cross-border investments and activities, understanding their U.S. tax and compliance obligations and risks, and rectifying noncompliance issues. She has advised clients on income tax treaty application, FATCA, FIRPTA, and other tax issues for inbound investments into the United States, the anti-deferral regimes for outbound investments (CFC, PFIC), and tax aspects of M&A transactions. Heather also advises clients on various tax information reporting regimes.

Heather also has experience in federal tax controversy work and has navigated numerous clients through the IRS’s voluntary disclosure procedures, letter rulings, and competent authority requests. Heather has also counseled various charitable and nonprofit organizations on incorporation, tax exemption applications and restrictions, and other tax issues, as well as providing volunteer income tax assistance for low-income individuals.

Heather was identified as “One to Watch” by The Best Lawyers in America® in Tax Law and has been recognized as a New York Law Journal Rising Star. She’s a frequent speaker at tax conferences and writes regularly about international tax developments.

Sean J. Tevel | Holland & Knight LLP

Sean Tevel is a private wealth services and international tax attorney in Holland & Knight’s Miami office. Mr. Tevel advises foreign and domestic clients on U.S. federal income, gift and estate tax matters associated with their cross-border investments and businesses.

Mr. Tevel has significant experience with respect to the structuring of U.S. real estate investments, including the application of the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act of 1980 (FIRPTA). He often represents domestic and foreign funds on fund formation and associated structuring considerations for non-U.S. investors. He also regularly advises on joint venture transactions both in a domestic and cross-border context. Mr. Tevel’s international tax practice involves providing advice with respect to multinational trust and business structures, including the application of the controlled foreign corporation rules, the Passive Foreign Investment Company (PFIC) rules and international tax treaties.

Mr. Tevel has assisted many clients in the establishment of Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOFs) and the maximization of tax benefits associated with investments in Opportunity Zones (OZs). Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Tevel was a tax attorney in the Miami office of an international law firm.

Jason Schwartz | Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP

Jason Schwartz is a tax partner and co-heads the firm’s Digital Assets and Blockchain Practice. He specializes in tax issues relating to financial products, securitizations, funds, treaties, lending, and digital assets. Jason is ranked Band 5 in Tax by Chambers USA and as a “Next Generation Partner ” by Legal 500 US in Tax: Financial Products. In response to the Chambers USA survey, a client commented that “Jason is a fantastic tax lawyer. He is knowledgeable, smart and responsive.”

Jason is the author of numerous tax articles and a Bloomberg BNA Tax Management Portfolio regarding the taxation of CLOs. He is frequently asked to speak on a wide range of topics related to tax and digital assets, including at conferences hosted by the NYSBA and the ABA and at Korea Blockchain Week.

Jason is committed to pro bono work and community service. He oversees Fried Frank’s 501Foundry, a pro bono program that incorporates and obtains tax-exempt status for non-profit organizations.
Prior to joining Fried Frank, Jason was a partner at a large international law firm.

Matthew Stevens | EY

Pedro E. Corona de la Fuente, Esq. | Procopio

Pedro advises clients in international estate planning, international tax and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. He focuses on U.S. investment structures, cross-border transactions, tax treaty planning, withholding obligations and reporting compliance on international transactions. The leader of Procopio’s International Tax practice, Pedro brings his clients experience in assisting clients and closely held companies with cross-border transactions involving the U.S., Mexico and other Latin American countries. He is a frequent speaker on international tax topics and recent tax developments affecting cross-border investments from and into Latin America.

Megan L. Brackney, Esq. | Kostelanetz LLP

Megan L. Brackney is a tax controversy attorney with a distinguished track record of delivering exceptional results for clients facing complicated and difficult tax issues. Megan develops innovative strategies to resolve compliance concerns, voluntary disclosures, civil audits, and criminal investigations for individuals, trusts, estates, corporations, and partnerships, including audits conducted under the IRS’s centralized audit regime of the Bipartisan Budget Act. Megan advocates for clients in IRS Appeals, and represents clients in litigation in the U.S. Tax Court and federal district courts. She has successfully defended taxpayers against assessment of tax penalties, including income tax, trust fund recovery, and foreign information return penalties.

Victor A. Jaramillo, Esq. | Caplin & Drysdale

Victor Jaramillo is a Member in Caplin & Drysdale’s Washington, D.C. office and is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. He advises multinational corporations, financial institutions, and individual clients on a broad range of tax matters, including tax controversies, risk management and international compliance, and cross-border structuring. He also utilizes his Spanish fluency to advise Spanish-speaking clients.

Mr. Jaramillo’s major areas of practice include subpart F, tax treaty issues and competent authority proceedings, FATCA entity classification and compliance, withholding and information reporting, financial products, and individual compliance. Mr. Jaramillo also advises on the international tax issues of high-net-worth clients with respect to pre-immigration and structuring cross-border investments. He has extensive experience advising both U.S. taxpayers and individuals living abroad with undisclosed foreign assets on U.S. tax compliance issues, especially those with foreign business and trust interests

Lawrence A. Sannicandro, Esq. | McCarter & English, LLP.

Larry has favorably resolved hundreds of federal and state tax controversies, many of which involved sophisticated and complex tax issues that established legal precedent.

Lawrence (Larry) Sannicandro focuses his practice on federal and state tax controversies, including representation in audits, administrative appeals, collection matters, summons proceedings, criminal tax investigations and prosecutions, and litigation in the United States Tax Court, federal district and appellate courts, and state tax tribunals. He has extensive experience providing tax-related advice with respect to original tax return reporting positions on a broad range of substantive tax issues, amending tax returns, filing and litigating claims for refund, challenging civil tax penalties, reporting foreign assets and income, and making voluntary disclosures.

Drawing on his unique experience as a former estate and gift tax attorney for the IRS, Larry is particularly well-versed in estate and gift tax planning techniques, as well as the valuation of closely held businesses, and defending those techniques and valuations in disputes with tax authorities. He also counsels clients on all facets of estate, business, and tax planning, including the formation, operation, transfer, and termination of business entities.

Larry is a member of the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council (IRSAC) and a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. He serves the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Taxation as a vice chair of the Court Procedure and Practice Committee as well as a member of the Appointments to the Tax Court Committee. He was also a past Chair of the ABA Section of Taxation’s Committee on Tax Collection, Bankruptcy and Workouts. On behalf of the Tax Section, he has drafted comments to Congress, the IRS, the Treasury Department, and the United States Tax Court on a wide range of tax issues, such as reforming the procedures for auditing and litigating against partnerships and the need to adopt a voluntary disclosure program for unreported cryptocurrency transactions.

Larry also teaches a course in tax practice and procedure as an adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and he has taught classes on corporate tax, partnership tax, legal ethics, and negotiations as an adjunct professor at Pace University and a lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center and Rutgers Law School.

Larry is a dedicated pro bono advocate who uses his tax expertise to give back to the community. He works with the After Innocence organization to provide tax-related advice to wrongfully convicted individuals. For his work in co-designing and co-implementing an entirely new form of low-income taxpayer assistance, the ABA Section of Taxation awarded Larry the 2020 Janet Spragens Pro Bono award, the Section of Taxation’s highest award for pro bono. Larry also regularly appears on behalf of taxpayers as part of the New York County Lawyers Association’s U.S. Tax Court Calendar Call Program. The New York County Lawyers Association awarded Larry its Pro Bono Award in 2015. Larry is a member of the Supreme Court of New Jersey District VA Ethics Committee, and he proudly serves as a trustee of Integrity House, one of the largest non-profit providers of substance use disorder treatment in New Jersey.

Prior to entering private practice, Larry served as a law clerk for the United States Tax Court. He earned his LLM in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center, his JD from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and his MBA in Finance from Binghamton University. Larry is a frequent author on tax practice and procedure, having published articles in the Journal of Tax Practice and Procedure, Tax Notes (including Tax Notes State), TAXES – The Tax Magazine®, and The New Jersey Law Journal, among other regarded periodicals. He is the author of the BNA Tax Management Portfolio on Innocent Spouse and a co-author of Qualified Appraiser, Qualified Appraisal: Practice, Procedure, Legal Analysis, and Theory (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2017), and Tax Practitioner’s Guide to Identity Theft (CCH, Inc. 1st ed. 2015; 2d ed. 2016). He is also a contributing author to the Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS (Chapter 10 of the ABA Section of Taxation’s book).

Melissa L. Wiley, Esq. | Lowenstein Sandler LLP

Melissa Wiley has over 20 years of experience in tax controversy and litigation on a wide range of civil tax matters at the federal and state level.

She represents clients at all levels of administrative controversy with the IRS, including audits and cases before the IRS Office of Appeals, and has significant experience handling penalty and international information reporting matters. Her experience includes litigation in the U.S. Tax Court, Court of Federal Claims, and various federal district courts, representing clients facing government and third-party subpoenas and investigations. She also counsels on voluntary disclosures of prior tax noncompliance.

An actuary by training, Melissa has practiced at a Big Four accounting firm, first as an Assistant General Counsel and later as a Senior Manager in the firm’s National Tax department; as well as in the Tax practice of an AmLaw 20 global law firm. A respected authority on tax controversy topics, Melissa frequently presents on IRS filing requirements, penalties, and enforcement, as well as on ethics and the Corporate Transparency Act. She is active in numerous professional organizations such as the AICPA and the ABA Tax Section, where she previously served as Vice Chair for Committee Operations and is currently a member of the Nominating and Appointments to the Tax Court Committees. She is also the chair of the DC Bar Tax Audits & Litigation Committee and the Regent for the Federal Circuit for the American College of Tax Counsel.

Melissa’s pro bono work includes assisting local children and caretakers through the Children’s Law Center, where she served on the board for a decade and has provided pro bono services in custody and abuse/neglect matters for more than 15 years.

DAY 1: THURSDAY, JULY 18

CONTROLLED FOREIGN CORPORATION PLANNING | 8:25am – 9:45am; 10:00am – 11:30am

Subpart F imposes numerous rules that impose US taxation on US shareholders of CFCs. This session addresses planning opportunities and traps for the unwary, earnings and profits limitations, and the use of various exceptions, including the same-country exception, the look-through rule for certain other payments between related CFCs, the active rent and royalty exception, and the high-tax exception. The discussion also addresses rules applicable to foreign base company sales and services income. The session covers the addition of “GILTI” rules pursuant to which US shareholders of CFCs are taxable on a far broader class of income than under the older Subpart F rules, including the definition of GILTI, the scope of the high-taxed exception, the ability to offset GILTI tax with foreign tax credits, expense apportionment, application of the GILTI rules to partners of partnerships, and current regulatory guidance.

Joseph M. Calianno, JD, LLM, MBA, CPA, Managing Director; National Tax Practice, Andersen Tax, Washington, DC
Enrica Ma, Esq., Partner, EY Americas Director of International Tax and Transaction Services (ITTS), National Tax Department, Washington, DC
Brandon C. Svetcov, Esq., Senior Manager, International Tax Services, EY, New York, NY

Break | 9:45am – 10:00am

Break | 11:30am – 11:45am

OUTBOUND PLANNING AND CHOICE OF ENTITY CONSIDERATIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS | 11:45am – 1:00pm

A principal focus of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was reforming the taxation of US based multinationals. Unfortunately, the impact of that reform on individuals who own foreign corporations either directly or through pass-through entities, such as partnerships and S corporations, appears not to have been well thought out. This panel addresses the taxation of such individuals, the problems that they face under the TCJA, and the steps that they can take to mitigate these apparent unintended consequences of tax reform.

Thomas M. Giordano-Lascari, Esq., Partner, Greenberg Glusker, Los Angeles, CA
Michael J.A. Karlin, Esq., Partner, Karlin & Peebles, Los Angeles, CA

Lunch | 1:00pm – 2:15pm

INTERNATIONAL MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS: US TAX CONSIDERATIONS AND PLANNING TECHNIQUES | 2:15pm – 3:30pm; 3:45pm – 4:30pm

Among the topics covered in this session are the US tax considerations for taxable and tax-free stock acquisitions of foreign companies, CFC issues, tax-free acquisitions of US companies, planning for the use of holding companies, inversion transactions, debt-equity regulations, use of hybrid instruments, OECD BEPS issues, and recent developments. The session also includes planning in light of tax law changes from the TCJA, including the base erosion anti-abuse tax (BEAT) and the anti-hybrid deduction limitations.

William S. Dixon, Esq., Managing Director, Mergers and Acquisitions, Citigroup Global Markets, New York, NY
Sam K. Kaywood, Esq., Partner, Alston & Bird, Atlanta, GA
William B. Sherman, Esq., Partner, Holland & Knight, Fort Lauderdale, FL

Break | 3:30pm – 3:45pm

DAY 2: FRIDAY, JULY 19

ADVANCED FOREIGN TAX CREDITS | 8:45am – 10:15am

With over six months having elapsed after their promulgation, this session dives into the final foreign tax credit regulations, exploring some of the key provisions and issues including what constitutes a creditable foreign income tax and how to allocate and apportion foreign tax to different “baskets.” The session covers, among other things, applying and navigating the newly renamed “attribution” and “cost recovery” requirements and the treaty coordination rules for foreign tax credit creditability determinations, as well as the rules for allocating and apportioning foreign tax applicable to disregarded distributions, foreign law distributions and dispositions.

Micah J. Gibson, Esq., Director, National Tax Services, PWC, Washington, DC
J.P. Gregorcy, CPA, Director, National Tax Services, PWC, Chicago, IL

Break | 10:15am – 10:30am

“FIRPTA” RULES AND PLANNING APPLICABLE TO FOREIGN PERSONS INVESTING IN US REAL ESTATE | 10:30am – 12:15pm

This session addresses the definition of US real property interest; tax rules applicable to foreign persons disposing of US real property interests; special rules applicable to investments through real estate investment trusts; special exceptions including for interests in publicly traded companies and domestically controlled real estate investment trusts, as well as special exemptions for qualified pension investors and foreign sovereign investors; and treaty and other withholding tax exemptions for payments of interest to foreign investors.

Alan I. Appel, Esq., Professor of Law, New York Law School, New York, NY
Heather Ripley, Esq., Partner, Alston & Bird, New York, NY
Sean J. Tevel, Esq., Partner, Holland & Knight, Miami, FL

Lunch | 12:15pm – 1:30pm

INBOUND DEBT INVESTING | 1:30pm – 3:00pm

This session addresses issues relating to investments by foreign persons in US debt, including US trade or business status, the safe harbors for certain investing and trading activities, “season and sell” techniques, and the use of income tax treaties including “bring your own treaty” funds.

Jason Schwartz, Esq., Partner, Fried Frank, Washington, DC
Matthew Stevens, Esq., Principal, EY, Washington, DC

Break | 3:00pm – 3:15pm

CURRENT PENALTY ISSUES | 3:15pm – 4:30pm

Tax controversy professionals, and the Taxpayer Advocate, have long been sounding the alarm about the complex filing requirements for international information returns and the often life-altering penalties imposed for noncompliance. Due in part to the IRS’s overzealous approach towards enforcement in this area, taxpayers have challenged international information return penalties on various technical grounds and on the basis of reasonable cause. Recently, some of these challenges have been addressed by the courts. This session discusses recent cases in the area as well as their implications going forward.

Pedro E. Corona de la Fuente, Esq., Partner, Procopio, Washington, DC
Megan L. Brackney, Esq., Partner, Kostelanetz, New York, NY
Victor A. Jaramillo, Esq., Partner, Caplin & Drysdale, Washington, DC
Lawrence A. Sannicandro, Esq., Partner, McCarter & English, Newark, NJ
Melissa L. Wiley, Esq., Partner, Lowenstein Sandler, Washington, DC