Tax

Our tax lawyers provide sophisticated and comprehensive tax counsel to our thousands of business and individual clients, including financial institutions of all sizes.  Our depth of knowledge and wealth of experience enable us to work with our clients to identify and achieve their objectives efficiently and cost effectively.

Federal Taxation

Our tax lawyers engage in all aspects of federal tax practice as part of our general representation of clients and as special tax counsel.  We advise our clients on a wide spectrum of tax-related issues, including business planning; financing and equity transactions; mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; real estate; executive compensation; partnerships, LLCs, joint ventures and S corporations; restructurings and workouts; tax controversies; venture capital; general/commercial aviation tax; federal excise taxes; accounting methods and periods; and consolidated returns.

Financing and Equity Transactions

Our tax lawyers assist our clients in the structuring of public and private offerings of debt and equity securities, as well as equipment and facility leases. We advise lenders and borrowers with respect to the tax consequences of complex borrowing transactions, including imputed interest and original issue discount, bond premium, interest rate and other derivatives, limitations on the deductibility of interest, cancellation of indebtedness and cross-border issues.  

Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures

Our tax lawyers work closely with our corporate and commercial lawyers representing public and private corporations and other entities in developing and implementing innovative, tax-efficient structures for taxable and tax-free equity and asset acquisitions and divestitures, both domestically and in a cross-border context.  

Executive Compensation

Our tax lawyers counsel businesses and executives regarding the structure and federal tax consequences of various forms of executive compensation. We regularly address matters like:

State and Local Taxation

Vorys state and local tax (SALT) lawyers work to find value and minimize risks, defending and enhancing our clients’ businesses from sophisticated planning to preparing a thorough audit defense, to all points in between.  As a firm founded in Ohio, we are especially active in Ohio state and local tax matters and have more Ohio-based state and local tax professionals than any other law firm in the state.  Eight of our attorneys and a non-attorney tax professional are full-time members of our state and local tax practice. Although our growth has been primarily due to the clients we represent on Ohio tax matters, we routinely represent clients in states other than Ohio as well.

Real and Personal Property Tax

Our firm has an extensive real and personal property tax practice.  On the personal property tax side of our practice, our lawyers routinely assist clients with planning and compliance issues, audit defense, dispute resolution and litigation, both for general business taxpayers and public utility taxpayers.  Our real property tax practice includes the filing of valuation complaints and representation of clients before boards of revision, the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals and Ohio courts.  Our firm also regularly files real property tax exemption applications, and we have broad experience in litigating exemption disputes.