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Arnold P. May

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Arnold P. May is a partner in the Tax Department and a member of the Private Funds Group. His practice focuses on tax planning for private equity fund managers in connection with their fund-raising and internal organizational matters, as well as investment activities.

In addition, Arnold represents U.S. and non-U.S. investors in connection with their investments in venture capital funds, buyout funds, hedge funds and other investment partnerships. In this capacity, as well as in connection with advising private equity funds with respect to their investment activities, he regularly advises on international tax issues that arise in connection with investments in the U.S. by non-U.S. investors (including non-U.S. investors subject to special U.S. tax treatment, such as governmental pension plans and tax-exempt organizations), as well as investments outside of the U.S. by U.S. persons. Arnold also has significant experience structuring tax-free and taxable mergers and acquisitions (including cross-border transactions), equity compensation arrangements and innovative financing techniques for investments in tax transparent entities such as partnerships, limited liability companies and Subchapter S corporations.

Arnold is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, including Financial Research Associates Tax Practices for Private Equity Funds, Institute for International Research Private Equity Tax Practices, Private Equity International Strategic Financial Management for Private Equity Firms, and Private Equity CFO Association. Highly-regarded for his thought leadership, Arnold is the editor of Private Equity International's "US Tax Considerations for Investment Fund Structuring", which was published in August of 2015. He also co-authored an article on "Management Company Structuring" (with Scott Jones) for the April 2008 Private Equity International Fund Structures Supplement.

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I.                   Introduction.

On March 4, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) and the Department of the Treasury (the “Treasury”) released proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) regarding the deduction for “foreign-derived intangible income” (“FDII”) under section 250 of the Internal Revenue Code.[1] Section 250 was enacted in 2017 as part of the tax reform act.[2] Very generally, section 250 provides domestic corporations with a reduced effective 13.125% tax rate on FDII, which is a formulary proxy for a domestic corporation’s intangible income attributable to foreign sales and services.[3] The reduced tax rate for FDII is intended to encourage U.S. multinationals to retain intellectual property in the United States rather than transfer it to a foreign subsidiary where it could generate global intangible low-taxed income (“GILTI”), which is taxable at a 10.5% rate. The Proposed Regulations also would permit individuals who make a section 962 election with respect to their controlled foreign corporation (“CFCs”) to benefit from the reduced 13.125% rate on the GILTI earned by those CFCs.

The Proposed Regulations are generally effective for taxable years ending on or after March 4, 2019.

This post provides both background to and a summary of some of the most important aspects of the Proposed Regulations. For more information, please contact any of the Proskauer tax lawyers listed on this post or your regular Proskauer contact.

On January 18, 2019, the U.S. Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) released final regulations (the “Final Regulations”) regarding the “passthrough deduction” for qualified trade or business income under section 199A of the Internal Revenue Code.[1] The Final Regulations modify proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) that were released in August 2018. The Final Regulations apply to tax years ending after February 8, 2019, but taxpayers may rely on the Proposed Regulations for taxable years ending in calendar year 2018.

Section 199A was enacted in 2017 as part of the tax reform act.[2] Generally, section 199A provides a deduction (the “passthrough deduction”) of up to 20% for individuals and certain trusts and estates of certain of the income from certain trades or businesses that are operated as a sole proprietorship, or through certain passthrough entities. The passthrough deduction provides a maximum effective rate of 29.6%.

This post provides background and summarizes some of the most important changes from the Proposed Regulations to the Final Regulations. For more information, please contact any of the Proskauer tax lawyers listed on this post or your regular Proskauer contact.

H.R. 1, commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, implements sweeping changes to the U.S. tax system. These changes will alter the fundamental tax principles upon which many investment and organizational decisions by the private investment industry were made.

Lawyers in our Tax and Private Investment Funds…

On June 13, 2017, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) re-released proposed regulations (REG 136118-15) that provide guidance on the new centralized partnership audit regime. The centralized partnership audit regime was enacted in November 2015 by Section 1101 of the Bipartisan…