Clark R. Calhoun

State and Local Tax Controversies

• Saved clients millions of dollars in favorable resolutions of income tax assessments stemming from transfer-pricing adjustments of intercompany service fees and royalties in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
• Earned a $5 million property tax refund for a major billboard operator in its appeal from New York City’s assessment of Times Square billboards.
• Represented Eisai Inc. in its successful appeal from a multimillion-dollar assessment and subsequent refund of Tennessee business tax. Eisai Inc. v. Gerregano, No. 19-805-IV (Tenn. Chancery Ct.).
• Advising national e-commerce sites regarding the application of states’ marketplace facilitator (MPF) laws and representing clients in multistate audits reviewing the sites’ compliance with MPF laws.
• Received no-change sales/use tax audit notices from numerous states for MPF clients in audits for periods prior to the registration for collection of taxes in those states.
• Represented a multinational business in an extremely favorable resolution of a California Franchise Tax Board assessment based on an assertion that the client was operating a unitary business with its subsidiaries.
• Persuaded the Wisconsin Department of Revenue to reverse its position that certain partnerships with losses should be excluded from a financial institution’s unitary group.
• Secured real and personal property tax exemptions for numerous Georgia-based charities and businesses, including charitable exemptions for arts organizations, social services providers, religious organizations, and health care entities, and freeport and port traffic exemptions for businesses with a Georgia presence. 
• Represented taxpayers and amicus parties in the foundational case law that defines the scope of charitable exemptions under Georgia property tax law. Fulton County Bd. Of Assessors v. Piedmont Park Conservancy, 333 Ga. App. 265.
• Secured substantial income tax refunds for entity-level franchise taxes paid by the partners of a partnership to Texas in a Georgia Tax Tribunal action establishing the right of pass-through owners to adjust Georgia incomes for entity-level taxes paid in other states. Rosenberg v. Riley, No. 1414626 (Ga. Tax Trib.).
• Working with clients toward efficient resolutions of tax audits involving payroll and unemployment tax issues in California, New York, and other states. 
• Reviewing proposed legislative language and in drafting language and working with stakeholders to achieve client objectives in various states.

Clark Calhoun represents clients in state tax controversy and litigation matters in Georgia, California, and other states before state and city taxing authorities, state trial and appellate courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has an unusually broad range of experiences in state and local taxes (SALT) that are off the radar of many multistate practitioners, and he has worked extensively in representing clients in appeals from state transfer pricing assessments, in helping buyers and sellers to resolve complex SALT exposure issues that arise in public and private M&A, and in advising businesses and insurers on policies involving SALT risks.

Clark also has a significant property tax practice and has saved clients millions of dollars by securing property tax exemptions for nonprofit clients, abatements and other incentives for energy businesses, and through challenges to above-market assessments of taxable properties.

Clark been recognized by Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America^®, and Super Lawyers, and he has served as chair of the Business Climate Committee of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the State Bar of Georgia Taxation Section. Clark serves on the Tax Notes State advisory board and was the subject of its “State Tax Spotlight.” 

Bar Admissions

• Georgia
• California

Education

• University of Georgia (J.D., 2005)
• Vanderbilt University (B.A., 2002)