Corporate Tax Departments and Lobbying

In at least 26 states, when your company sends an employee or outside attorney to a revenue agency to negotiate a tax refund or incentive, that person must now be registered as a lobbyist -- or your company risks being hit with substantial fines and/or suspensions.

Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Georgia, and Connecticut are among the jurisdictions that now define “lobbyist” to include anyone who approaches a state executive agency. A growing number of major counties and cities have enacted similar ordinances.

Listen as our authoritative panelists bring you up-to-date on state and local lobbying laws and the their implications for the tax profession.

Sonia Fois is a partner in the public policy and government contracts practice group at Arnold & Porter, Washington, DC. Her practice focuses on complex public policy and legal compliance needs, including advising clients on “political law” issues such as campaign finance and other electoral activity, lobbying restrictions and disclosure, government procurement, and government ethics.

Michael Press is managing director of the business incentives advisory group at Duff & Phelps, a leading independent financial advisory firm offering a broad range of consulting and investment banking services. He was previously in charge of the business incentives practice at Ernst & Young.

Joe Pilewski is a director with Duff & Phelps and has more than 20 years of business incentive experience. He was previously a principal with Ernst & Young, where he was business incentives practice leader for the Lake Michigan area.

Our panelists -- who have conducted detailed research on this emerging trend that has largely escaped the tax profession’s notice -- offer guidance on these and other key issues:

• Which states now count any representatives approaching a state agency for something of value to a company as a lobbyist
• How to comply with current requirements for lobbyist registration and reporting in those states and some local jurisdictions -- and what penalties can be imposed for violations.
• Whether your company can get in trouble if its outside tax counsel hasn’t registered as a lobbyist.
• Where your company cannot legally pay a contingency fee tied to the amount of the tax benefit -- and how you can restructure your fee arrangements so that they’re not contingency based.
• How to effectively police your outside advisors to make sure they understand the applicable lobbying laws and have met all of their responsibilities.

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