Our Practice

Estate Planning and Taxation

Practice Contact: John McDermott
john.mcdermott@taylorporter.com
225.381.0261

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Taylor Porter's estate planning and tax practice is now five-persons strong, having hired three additional attorneys to join senior partners John McDermott and Mary Hester. Rebecca Hinton, Justin Mannino and Ryan Gonzales add to Mary and John’s more-than 65-years of tax and estate planning experience and ensure the firm’s clients continue to adhere to the oft-changing tax and estate planning statutes and regulations both locally and nationally.

From individuals to small businesses to large corporations, tax and estate planning needs vary, depending on the client, and Taylor Porter's estate planning and tax attorneys have extensive experience in business formations, acquisitions, mergers, reorganizations and dissolutions, including structuring to minimize tax and liability exposure.

In addition to counseling clients, we represent clients before local, state and federal tax authorities, including the Louisiana Department of Revenue and Taxation, the Board of Tax Appeals, the Internal Revenue Service, Tax Court, and all other Louisiana and Federal Courts. With John and Ryan both being CPAs as well as tax attorneys, the dual service can provide clients with the financial background to understand the intricate details of their company’s balance sheets, and also position us to be able to advise on business structure to reduce tax liabilities, ensure taxes are professionally filed, and be proactive in avoiding any litigation issues.

Taylor Porter also assists individual clients in need of assistance for estate planning documents, ranging from traditional wills and powers of attorney to establishing large-scale trusts, family limited liability companies, and long-term gifting plans to lessen both State and Federal estate and gift tax exposure. Our attorneys can help clients devise estate-planning strategies to help them stay below the exemption threshold and avoid a huge portion of their estate going to taxes, and sort out complex family or financial situations. State laws are very specific about what can and can’t be in a will, trust, or who can and can't serve as a personal representative to a will or trust, and be a financial power of attorney, so our attorneys are available to help sort out those complex issues.

Staying abreast of industry trends and regulations is and always has been important to our Firm and a duty to our clients.

Estate Planning and Administration

  • Handle multimillion dollar estates including representation of the estate in federal estate tax audits.
  • Represent clients in estate planning and administration; federal estate and gift taxation; trust law; making charitable gifts through charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, private foundations, supporting organizations, or private operating foundations; and counseling nonprofit organizations.
  • Assist clients with preparation of personal estate planning documents, ranging from traditional wills and powers of attorney to establishing large scale trusts, family limited liability companies, and long-term gifting plans to lessen estate and gift tax exposure.
  • Prepare estate plans and implement wills, powers of attorney and to establish trust instruments [grantor trusts, multigenerational trusts, and grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs)]; and administering successions.
  • Advise clients regarding the structure of multi-generational wealth conservation plans to effectively access the exemptions for the gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes and to transfer intra-family wealth with minimal transfer tax cost and without disruption of business operations.

Tax Law

  • Represent clients in acquisitions, mergers, reorganizations and dissolutions, including structuring to minimize tax and liability exposure.
  • Advise clients on formation and operations of entities for both tax planning and state law compliance issues, and drafting business documents to achieve client objectives.
  • Advise clients concerning business and personal financial transactions and options to lessen tax exposure.
  • Handle large-scale Federal, state and local tax controversies with the Internal Revenue Service, Louisiana Department of Revenue and local taxing authorities, including audits, administrative negotiations, trial preparation and litigation.
  • Assist individuals and businesses in obtaining federal, state, and local tax and business incentives.
  • Create private and non-private foundations and obtaining favorable determination letters of charitable, tax-exempt status.
  • Provide advice to nonprofit entities on formation, corporate governance, tax exemption, and compliance with tax-exempt law.
  • Develop the tax structure for sales, mergers or acquisitions of businesses, and drafting buy-sell agreements, asset or stock purchase agreements, operating agreements, or other corporate governance instruments.
  • Provide business planning for closely-held corporations, and provide tax advice for matters from formation to liquidation.

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Practice Attorneys

Mary C. Hester
John F. McDermott
Ryan B. Gonzales
Rebecca M. Hinton
Justin T. Mannino

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