Photo of Malcolm Hochenberg

Malcolm S. Hochenberg is a partner in the Tax Department. Malcolm’s practice involves helping clients achieve all tax and other commercial objectives in an array of industries.

Malcolm often works with companies in the context of an M&A transaction and then becomes a day-to-day advisor to the organization and/or its owners. Malcolm also has extensive experience restructuring companies in distressed and non-distressed situations. Within the Firm and among clients, he is known for his proactive, solution-oriented approach.

Malcolm’s experience includes work in the following disciplines:

M&A

Private equity funds in dozens of acquisitions, dispositions and related financings

Acquisitions and dispositions by and of public companies

Mergers and consolidations of registered funds

Sales of professional sports franchises and other gaming businesses

Advisory and Restructuring

Reorganizing global structures for multinational firms,

Work both near and in bankruptcy, including Chapter 11 restructurings and representing ad hoc groups of private credit lenders in Chapter 11 and 363 sale processes

Designing and implementing structures for sports tournaments and other JVs involving sporting events

Working with companies in the context of tax audits and refund claims

Venture Capital and Intellectual Property

Licensing and other collaboration agreements for for-profit and tax-exempt organizations

Structuring start-ups and representing early stage investors

Representing investors in the context of transformative transactions for underlying portfolio companies

Capital Markets

IPOs, debt and equity offerings and tack-ons, including via “Up-C” structure with tax receivables agreement

Real Estate

Joint ventures, as well as acquisitions and dispositions of realty, in both contexts structuring for tax sensitive investors

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.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted section 1400Z-2 of the Internal Revenue Code, which created the qualified opportunity zone program. The program is designed to encourage investment in distressed communities designated as “qualified opportunity zones” by providing tax incentives to invest in “qualified opportunity funds” (“opportunity funds”) that, in

This post outlines at a high-level certain provisions under the recently enacted 2017 tax legislation (Pub. L. 115-97, the “Tax Act”) that may affect M&A Transactions.  Some of these rules are very complex, particularly in cross-border transactions, and this post describes them in general terms without all of their fine details.  The discussion of foreign corporations below is in the context of foreign subsidiaries of U.S. groups.

Multiple Lower Effective Corporate Tax Rates

There are now multiple effective corporate tax rates and the much-despised corporate alternative minimum tax has been repealed.  Because all of them are substantially below 35 percent, they may contribute to an increase in asset prices.  In addition, tax benefits now may be less valuable to corporate purchasers than to non-corporate buyers.

Base Corporate Income Tax Rate21 percent tax rate (effective for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017).  No sunset provision.

Certain Foreign Source Income Earned from the U.S (“FDII”).—Intended to attract cross-border business back to the U.S., a tax rate lower than 21 percent is now imposed on certain excess returns earned by a U.S. corporation on the sale, license or lease of property or the provision of services to an unrelated foreign party for foreign use or consumption.  (Additional rules apply when the transaction is with a related party.)  In broad terms, the lower rate applies to the foreign source income from these transactions in excess of 10 percent of the corporation’s allocable depreciable tangible property basis.