Tax / Estate Planning

Overview

Arent Fox provides tax advice that fits the business objectives of our clients. We work closely with clients’ internal tax staff and business lawyers to design tax structures that fit the context of particular transactions. Estate planning clients rely on Arent Fox's expertise in estate, gift and income tax planning for lifetime and postmortem transfers.

Tax

Arent Fox has expertise in almost all areas of federal and state tax law and brings practical business judgment and strong advocacy skills in representing taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and New York tax authorities and all courts having jurisdiction over federal tax disputes. Specialties include:

• Real estate.
• International transactions (both inbound and outbound).
• Operation, reorganization and dissolution of publicly and privately held corporations (including S corporations).
• Partnerships and limited liability companies.
• Real estate investment trusts.
• Taxable and tax‑free acquisitions and dispositions of corporate assets and stock.
• Workouts and bankruptcies.
• Executive compensation arrangements.
• Stock options and employee benefit plans.
• Tax-exempt organizations, estate and gift taxation.
• Income taxation of estates and trusts.

In administrative and litigation matters, we obtain IRS National Office rulings on proposed transactions and employee plans; represent taxpayers before the audit, appeals, collection and criminal investigation divisions of the IRS and litigate tax disputes. We also assist Arent Fox legislative experts in monitoring and shaping pending tax legislation on behalf of clients.

Estate Planning

Arent Fox provides comprehensive estate planning, tax planning, business succession planning, charitable planning and wealth management services to individuals and their families. Services include:

• Designing wealth protection and preservation strategies.
• Structuring estate plans to ease the transmission of personal wealth and achieve philanthropic goals.
• Restructuring closely held business entities.
• Administering estates and trusts.
• Litigating fiduciary issues and tax disputes before state and federal courts.

Clients include real estate developers, entrepreneurs, professional performers and athletes, and executives and principal shareholders of some of the largest companies and closely held businesses in Washington, DC, and New York City.

We also offer tax and corporate advice to exempt organizations, including private foundations and other charitable entities. Our lawyers represent individual donors and exempt organizations in implementing lifetime and testamentary charitable planned giving techniques designed to achieve charitable and tax objectives. We also advise fiduciaries, including banks and trust companies, on federal, state and international tax issues, will and trust construction and trust reformation for tax and non-tax purposes.

We have a substantial practice in administrating decedent’s estates in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and other jurisdictions. We represent personal representatives and trustees in all phases of the estate and trust administration process, including preparing estate tax returns and fiduciary income tax returns, and the use of disclaimers and complicated post-mortem tax planning.

ERISA and Executive Compensation

Arent Fox advises clients on benefit issues related to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and other statutes that regulate Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP’s), 401(k) plans, defined benefit pension plans, health and welfare plans, executive deferred compensation programs, stock-based programs, severance programs and fringe benefit plans. We design and draft benefit plans and counsel clients, both for-profit and nonprofit, on compliance rules. We also develop practical solutions for fixing broken plans, particularly when a client has been sold an “off-the-shelf” program that does not meet its business objectives, and have been very successful in negotiating extensions or settlements with the IRS when employers have discovered operational problems with their benefit plans.

We have expertise in the Internal Revenue Code, applicable Department of Labor regulations and other laws relating to employee benefits. We normally handle pension and welfare benefit plan cases on behalf of employers or the plans’ fiduciaries. In addition, we occasionally represent benefit plans, rather than employees.

We serve as general counsel to sponsors of many large and small multi-employer and single-employer plans. We also serve as plan counsel to a number of pension and health plans, some of them governmental plans. The practice includes a former general counsel of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), one of three federal agencies responsible for administering and enforcing the federal pension laws, and many Arent Fox experts write and lecture on employee benefit issues.

Arent Fox’s Washington, DC, location gives it ready access to the federal agencies responsible for the administration and enforcement of the pension laws, including the IRS, the Department of Labor, and the PBGC.