Betts Patterson Mines

Taxation

Businesses and estates and trusts holding a business or an interest in a business and beneficiaries of trusts, face important local, state and federal tax decisions every day. Many of these are answered by staff or accountants. However, on occasion, the questions need more review or are presented by the taxing authorities, whether IRS, the Department of Revenue or a local authority. Members of the BPM Tax Group are well versed in local, state and federal taxes and regularly counsel businesses and their owners and estates and trusts on taxes related to their operations, including, for instance, S Corporation elections and issues, state and federal constitutional issues for state and local taxes, tax audit issues, reporting requirements, corporate and partnership and LLC taxation and entity selection, gains on asset sales and entity liquidation, reorganizations including mergers and spin-offs, and tax-qualified employee benefit plans.

The BPM tax group has extensive estate planning practices which concentrate on transferring property among family members in the most tax efficient manner consistent with the desires of the client. Counseling clients on the disposition of their assets, whether by lifetime transfers or transfers which will take effect on death, requires the ability to determine a client’s true objectives as well as the confidence to challenge a client on his or her preconceived notions on how to meet those objectives by recommending alternative methods. The BPM Tax Group has the experience and talent to design a plan to best meet the client’s objectives and assist in the implementation of the plan. 

Representative Cases

  • Business owners in the formation of new entities and the reorganization of existing business entities
  • Design plans for limited liability companies and partnerships for transfers to family members
  • Businesses in the preparation of complex, insured and uninsured buy-sell arrangements
  • High net-worth individuals in managing their assets and counseling on tax efficient methods of transferring assets to family members or tax exempt organizations
  • Businesses and their equity owners in structuring and carrying out mergers, acquisitions and spinning off unwanted businesses
  • Business operators in making tax sensitive decisions on business operations and the formation and restructuring of the business entity 
  • Business and individual taxpayers in controversies and litigation with local, state and federal tax authorities
  • Estates and trusts
  • Private foundations
  • Design beneficiary designations for tax qualified employee benefit plans