Printer Friendly Page
Paul G. Marcotte, Jr.
Principal
(301) 951-9368
(301) 654-0165 fax
Send E-Mail:
V-Card
Paul G. Marcotte, Jr. co-chairs the firm’s Tax practice group and is a member of the Estate Planning, Estate/Trust Administration, Business/Commercial Transactions and Mergers/Acquisitions groups, among others. He concentrates on federal, state and international tax matters, estate and wealth preservation planning, probate and trust administration, business succession planning, business sales, acquisitions and reorganizations, and executive compensation.
A significant part of Mr. Marcotte’s tax and estate planning practice focuses on unique estate planning considerations for multinationals including staff at international organizations in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund among others. This type of planning often presents complex tax and legal issues, some of which involve a multinational owning property both inside and outside the United States. These considerations include different tax rules and legal systems in various countries or jurisdictions where a client may own property or conduct business activities. Often, international tax conventions must be consulted to ascertain whether a particular asset in one’s estate can be taxed by a particular country. It also needs to be determined if relief may be available from some of the more onerous features of the U.S. wealth transfer tax system resulting from the 1988 enactment of tax legislation commonly known as TAMRA.
Mr. Marcotte’s international tax practice also includes advising a wide spectrum of clients on cross border investment matters and international tax compliance. He counsels multinationals on the structuring of foreign investment in U.S. real estate or establishing new business ventures in this country with a view to minimizing the potential impact of U.S. income taxation on the profits/gains from such activity and limiting exposure to U.S. wealth transfer taxes. The converse involves assisting U.S clients (including dual nationals) that hold interests in offshore entities subject to some rather specialized and complex tax regimes and enhanced reporting requirements including foreign trusts, controlled foreign corporations and passive foreign investment companies. He also advises on more complex international matters including expatriation planning.
From an estate planning perspective, Mr. Marcotte designs sophisticated strategies for high net worth clients, including successful business entrepreneurs and real estate investors. He minimizes the adverse impact of federal wealth transfer taxes and preserves and perpetuates family wealth for future generations using the latest planning techniques including such strategies as dynasty or perpetual trusts.
In addition to planning and compliance matters, Mr. Marcotte represents both individuals and business organizations before the Internal Revenue Service and state and local tax authorities in conjunction with a broad spectrum of tax controversy matters such as taxpayer examinations, non-compliant taxpayers including non-filers, penalty assessments, appeals and other tax controversy proceedings. He recently has helped clients with undisclosed offshore accounts and other holdings come forward by making a voluntary disclosure to the IRS under its recently announced offshore voluntary compliance program with the expectation of avoiding some of the harsher penalties that can be imposed for non-compliant taxpayers. He also works with clients in establishing tax-exempt organizations including private foundations.
Mr. Marcotte’s practice also involves acting as corporate or outside counsel to various small and mid-sized business organizations, both corporate and unincorporated. He counsels them on a wide variety of matters, including new business start-ups, real estate investments, the structure and completion of business acquisitions, divestitures, mergers and reorganizations, corporate buy-sell agreements, employment matters and structuring executive deferred compensation and stock option plans. He also provides business succession planning for owners of closely held businesses and real estate entrepreneurs –an area often inextricably linked to his estate planning practice – and counsels executives on special tax aspects/planning for executive compensation including non-qualified stock options and incentive stock option issues.
Over his 25 years in practice, Mr. Marcotte has been directly involved in some major merger and acquisition transactions, including two acquisitions in recent years by Fortune 500 companies of closely held businesses which were clients of the firm. Those transactions involved consideration exceeding $250 million in each case.
A frequent speaker to various professional organizations and a published writer who contributes articles to legal publications on selected tax and estate planning topics, Mr. Marcotte has been quoted in The Washington Post and other local media outlets on significant tax developments. He has made a presentation to the Estates and Trusts Section of the Montgomery County Bar Association on the status of family partnerships in the aftermath of the Tax Court’s then latest Strangi decision. He also presented to L’Association Démocratique des Français à l’Etranger at the French Embassy in November 2006, addressing key tax and estate planning concerns of French nationals working in the U.S., including special features in the Protocol to the existing U.S.-French estate and inheritance tax convention which had just recently entered into force.
Mr. Marcotte has served as a part-time instructor, teaching various tax courses for paralegal studies at area universities, and has been a guest lecturer at local law schools. Prior to starting his legal career, he worked as a Certified Public Accountant for an accounting firm in Silver Spring, Md.
After earning his B.S. degree in Accounting – and membership in the Beta Alpha Psi accounting fraternity – as well as a Masters in Business Administration (with a concentration in international finance) from the University of Maryland, Mr. Marcotte received his J.D. from the University of Baltimore. It was there that he received the American Jurisprudence Award for Study of Agency & Partnerships before earning a Master of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center. He is admitted to the bar in Maryland and the District of Columbia, is a member of the American Bar Association, State of Maryland and District of Columbia Bar Associations, and belongs to the Tax, Estate and Trust, Business and International Estate Planning Sections of several of these organizations.
Mr. Marcotte is a member of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners), an international group of experienced and senior professionals in the field of trusts and estates.
He was elected to serve a three-year term (2009-11) on the Council of the Section of Taxation of the Maryland State Bar Association, the governing body of the section that sets its overall policy and is responsible for giving testimony on proposed legislation and regulatory developments impacting the general public as well as tax practitioners.
Education
LL.M. in Taxation, Georgetown University Law Center, 1983
J.D., Recipient, American Jurisprudence Award for Study of Agency & Partnerships, University of Baltimore School of Law, 1981
M.B.A., University of Maryland, 1981
B.S., University of Maryland, 1976
Publications
“Mon Dieu! Your Client is Now the Beneficiary of an Offshore Trust,” Maryland Bar Journal, September/October 2009
Co-Author, “Estate Planning for Real Estate” presented at MICPEL Advanced Estate Planning Institute, May 2008.
“Tax Legislation Offers Small Business Incentives,” Business Gazette, Dec. 17, 2004
“Keeping 2036 Out of It” case note in Trusts and Estates (January 2004) on a judicial decision involving family partnerships in the context of the federal estate tax laws
“Section 482: Reallocation of Personal Service Corporation Income to Shareholders,” 12 University of Baltimore Law Review 40, 1982