Kutak Rock’s national public finance tax practice forms the foundation for the firm’s overall public finance practice and is a national leader in public finance tax law. The public finance tax group includes lawyers who have served in the group for decades and who are nationally recognized for their knowledge in the area.
Members of the group are in frequent contact with U.S. Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service personnel to discuss the newest tax legislation and guidance, review complex tax structuring matters or receive commentary affecting the public finance practice. All of our tax attorneys are continuously involved in comment projects to these agencies or to Congress relating to legislation and guidance and frequently serve as leaders of such comment projects initiated by industry groups. Several of the group’s attorneys have also chaired the Tax Law Committee of the National Association of Bond Lawyers or the American Bar Association’s Committee on Tax-Exempt Finance (or predecessor committees).
All members of our tax group have had significant experience as tax counsel in structuring sophisticated taxable and tax-exempt transactions of all types. Our reputation for public finance tax work builds confidence in our clients and transaction partners and supports a collaborative approach to efficiently completing financings. In addition to general tax structuring services, all members of our tax group represent clients in Internal Revenue Service bond examinations and have broad experience with obtaining private letter rulings. Our attorneys also have substantial experience negotiating settlements with the Internal Revenue Service and pursuing Voluntary Closing Agreement Program arrangements. We interact regularly with the firm’s dedicated arbitrage rebate practice to provide thorough analysis to clients concerning yield restriction and arbitrage rebate and yield reduction payment liability.
Our tax group’s goal in any public finance transaction (whether we serve in the role of bond counsel or special tax counsel) is to ensure that our tax analysis and tax work contribute to a timely completion of the financing. Our general approach to meeting this goal is to provide constructive input from the start of a transaction concerning potential tax structuring points, to conduct tax due diligence early in the transaction and to continuously evaluate whether changes in the structure over the course of the transaction will impact tax matters.
