Mid Hudson Chapter - Annual Tax Conference

Jennifer’s practice focuses on corporate, tax and estate and business succession planning matters. She advises privately held companies and individuals on a wide range of corporate and tax matters, including mergers and acquisitions, real estate, financial transactions and complex trust and estate matters. Admitted to practice in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, she serves a robust client base of privately held corporate clients and high-net worth individuals seeking corporate, tax and trust and estate planning services. She works closely with other attorneys, accountants, financial advisors and business owners, among others. Her extensive experience includes leading teams to advise clients on the sale and purchase of a wide variety of businesses, including manufacturing, data analytics, construction, wholesale distribution, retail, hospitality, professional services and consulting. In addition, Jennifer advises start up and mature businesses on all aspects of operations, including governance, capital raising, executive compensation and vendor contracts, along with extensive experience working with businesses with respect to MWBE and DBE program qualification and appeals. Jennifer also advises businesses and individuals in all areas of tax planning and controversy work, including with respect to partnerships, corporations, trusts and estates. In addition to her legal practice, Jennifer is the director of the M.S. in taxation program at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where she teaches courses on partnership tax, state and interstate taxation, tax planning and research. She is also an adjunct professor at Albany Law School, where she teaches various tax courses as well.

Joe counsels clients on a wide range of state and local taxation issues and represents taxpayers in disputes with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance as well as the New York City Department of Finance. As the Sales & Use Tax Practice Leader, Joe’s practice focuses on sales and use tax issues, especially in the technology (software as a service, cloud computing, digital products, etc.), fine arts and construction industries. Joe is the primary author of our firm’s sales tax blog, All About Sales Tax. Joe is a contributing editor (New York Chapter) of the American Bar Association's Sales and Use Tax Deskbook. Joe also counsels clients regarding personal income tax planning and residency issues. He co-authored, with Mark S. Klein, the 2019 Guidebook to New York Taxes, a reference source of information on this topic and he writes a column for Tax Notes State called “The Endres Assessment." He also advises clients with respect to various federal and state tax incentive-based programs such as the federal renewable energy investment and production tax credits, New York State's Start-Up NY Program, the Excelsior Program, the former Empire Zone Program, the Brownfield Tax Credit Program and the Historical Building Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program. As the Abandoned Property Audits Practice Leader, Joe counsels clients in this area of law and has represented large corporations in complex compliance matters such as multistate abandoned property audits and voluntary disclosures.

John is passionate about serving family businesses, protecting wealth, and saving people money. His firm is devoted solely to the important practice areas for his passion: estate planning, tax consulting, and business transactions. He is particularly thrilled when all three areas can be put together in one engagement, such as the sale of a family business. This multiplies the impact of the planning and the magnitude of the savings. John and his firm bring this planning to numerous other situations: sales of legacy assets like farms or vacation homes, investment decisions and charitable giving. For example, using something called "pre-event planning", business owners choose from an array of techniques before a sale transaction occurs. These techniques are custom designed to meet the owners' objectives: income tax savings, estate tax reduction and asset protection. John enjoys seeing how these strategies greatly increase the after-tax benefit for his client families. John brings integrity and fair dealing to his advice, with a light touch and a comforting humor. Despite usually being knee-deep in death and taxes, John's approach is reassuring and effective. Most new clients leave John's office laughing, despite the gravity of the planning matters, and eager to take the next step. Frequently, new clients admit that they never really understood their prior estate plan. John has the ability to clearly explain complex strategies so clients are able to make better informed decisions. Effective communication is a core value of John's, and his firm. John has been in the muddy boots of the business owner. With his law partner Marty, he started the firm more than 25 years ago. They had no clients, no money, just a plan to be better, faster and more caring than what they had experienced with other lawyers. John learned what it is to acquire business, make payroll, run the operation and practice law. Many lawyers never experience that, and John uses this life experience to impart practical, useful knowledge to common planning problems of the business owner and other successful individuals. When he is not horsing around at the firm, John can be found at his home, a horse farm in Middleburgh, Schoharie County, NY where he and his wife Patty relocated her Windhorse Thoroughbreds, LLC business. Like the law firm, Windhorse was another start-up, this time in the horse breeding and racing business. Seven years ago, Patty and John purchased and developed what is now known as Cotton Hill Farm, a farm property re-purposed for horse breeding. After mucking, mowing and spending his way to a better life in the country, John now enjoys his time off on the farm hiking with three farm dogs and keeping his distance from the numerous other farm critters.

Erika Wood is a member of Hinman Straubs' Corporate Law practice and specializes in tax issues. She provides advice to both for-profit and not-for profit entities on a wide range of corporate and tax matters, including business and tax planning, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, commercial financings and fundraising. Erika has significant experience advising clients undertaking complex joint ventures, seeking to obtain tax credits or structuring tax-free reorganizations. Within her scope of work, Erika drafts and negotiates complex partnership agreements, stock and asset purchase agreements and financing transactions. She also consults clients in tax compliance, reporting and navigating tax risks, and has successfully represented clients in disputes with New York State and the Internal Revenue Service. Erika earned her Juris Doctor Summa cum laude from Albany Law School, where she served as the Lead Articles Editor of the Albany Law Review and as a Deal Sponsler Honors Teaching Fellow. She obtained her LLM in taxation from New York University while working full-time as an attorney.

Donna is currently a Taxpayer Service Specialist 3 in the Personal Income Tax Bureau of the Office of Processing Services. In addition to her normal work duties, she has volunteered to be part of a team of Outreach Specialists established to meet the needs of organizations requesting speakers from the Department; in this role, she assists the team in presenting comprehensive strategies to educate taxpayers about their tax obligations, available filing options, and potential credits and deductions. By interacting and collaborating with professional tax preparers, small business representatives, nonprofits, and government organizations, she strives to enhance voluntary tax compliance. She has been dedicated to raising awareness of the department’s numerous educational services and resources. Ms. Parker has been with the Tax Department for 11 years.