International and Multi-jurisdictional Practice

We often render advice to foreign nationals, U.S. and foreign businesses about the ongoing personal and operational issues facing businesses and individuals with tax nexus, operations and/or assets in multiple jurisdictions. In today's increasingly global business and investment community, many businesses and investors must consider the tax business and regulatory framework of multiple states or countries. We guide clients through the competing considerations between different states or countries of legal residency, and the differing advantages of acquiring or establishing a business in one or more locales.

We counsel individuals and businesses from around the world on international tax matters and investment and disposition opportunities. Our goal in counseling our clients is worldwide tax minimization through lawfully available means. We may minimize worldwide tax liabilities of U.S. multinational and foreign clients through internal restructurings, imaginative hybrid entities, the acquisition or establishment of a business in foreign locales, and novel cross-border transactions.

Much of our practice involves U.S. tax issues, and we have provided advice on such domestic tax issues to Austrian, Belgian, Brazilian, Canadian, Chinese, English, German, Iraqi, Irish, Israeli, Japanese, French, Ghanian, Kenyan, Manx, Mexican, Russian, Singaporean, South African, Spanish, Swiss, and Thai investors and businesses. In many cases, not only U.S. tax issues and/or home country tax issues (or coordination with local tax counsel) are considered. Frequently, various U.S. state tax issues must be taken into account in an integrated fashion.

As Robert W. Wood is admitted to practice as a Solicitor in England and Wales, we have counseled clients on the U.K. tax aspects of domestic U.K. tax issues and transactions, and on a variety of cross-border transactions involving the U.K., various EU and other European countries, Australia, Canada, Japan, etc. He is also a member of the Canadian and Australian bars, and we have advised clients on the tax aspects of cross-border transactions in those countries, either on our own or working in tandem with local counsel where required.

Our expertise covers a wide array of cross-border and multinational transactions, including: international mergers and acquisitions, dispositions, joint-ventures, and restructurings to reduce multinational tax exposure. We have structured and negotiated a number of tax-sensitive cross-border merger and acquisition transactions and tax-free reorganizations. With our lawyers representing membership of the bars of California, New York, the District of Columbia, Ohio, Arizona, Montana, Washington, Texas, and Wyoming (as well as England, Wales, Canada and Australia), we are qualified to handle tax matters at the administrative level and in court in many states, and even foreign countries.

Representations have included the following:

• Advised an Argentinian investor and his U.S. and Buenos Aires law firm on an efficient structure (to address U.S. and Argentina tax concerns, as well as liability issues) for purchasing and holding a South American ranch.

• Advised a London-based software company with New York and California operations on its New York sales tax exposure, as well as U.K. Value Added Tax (VAT) rebates and refunds.

• Advised an Israeli national on the tax aspects of an international property dispute.

• After a mediation, settled a long-standing and bitter dispute involving a German family advised by a U.S. attorney, trustee and investment advisor.

• Represented a Mexican consortium of businesses on U.S. and U.K. settlement funds transfers.

• Advised Brazilian software entrepreneurs on U.S. tax laws bearing on their foreign software operations.

• Advised the U.S. distributor of a German equipment maker on a sale of assets and intellectual property assignment.

• Structured a holding company and joint venture on behalf of a New Zealand based luxury meat exporter and affiliated U.S. based meat broker.

• Represented a U.S. charity on the purchase of a participation interest in an English company and participation in a public securities solicitation in the U.K.

• Advised a Brazilian partnership on a U.S. and Swiss investment and holding company structure arising out of a software licensing agreement.

• Advised a Mexican corporation and its owners on the U.S. federal income tax consequences of: (1) an acquisition; (2) the tax and investment aspects of a Swiss holding company structure; and (3) liaised with Mexican tax counsel to closing.

• Advised a German executive of a foreign public company on a parachute and installment arrangement.

• Advised an investor with a base of operations in France, Austria and Mexico on a U.S. holding company for a franchise business, as well as on various U.S. and foreign tax issues.

• Represented a U.S. equity group in acquiring by tender offer a stake in a U.K. public company.

• Advised a Japanese securities firm on a spinoff structure, and alternatives for same, culminating in a report to Japanese legislators on spinoff regulation.

• Assisted English and South African lawyers on several series of equity infusions for a publicly-traded South African software company.

• Represented members of a Canadian family in cross border tax matters and the planning of Canadian and U.S. tax on the disposition of substantial investment assets.

• Represented a South African entertainment and educational software distributor and its affiliates in acquiring sub-Saharan African distribution rights from a U.S. market leader.

• Represented a Singaporean investor in acquiring a U.S.-based international business.

• Represented a Paris-based investor in purchasing (and then several years later selling) a European bicycle tour company.

• Represented a South Korean company in a dispute with California tax authorities.

• Advised a Germany-based investor on the tax situs and tax planning and disclosure issues presented by dispositions of intellectual property.

• Advised a number of U.S., South American, Indian, Canadian, Australian, British, South African, German and other investors on tax issues relating to their tax status, their tax domicile and/or physical residency.

• Advised several non-U.K. citizens and their families on the U.S. and U.K. tax issues presented by moving into the United Kingdom.

• Advised a Geneva-based trust company on the U.S. tax issues facing U.S. trust distributees. 

• Advised U.S. and U.K. shareholders on the corporate and tax aspects of sale of a Swedish public company.

• Advised an English citizen on the U.S. and U.K. tax aspects of a dispute with a software company litigated in London.

• Advised an Italian executive on the structuring of a payment from an international construction firm in London.

• Advised several foreign entity recipients on the tax treatment of anticipated payments from large English and Dutch public companies resolving antitrust and intellectual property litigation.

References available on request.