Mark E. Berg

Mark is Chair of the firm’s Tax Practice Group. For more than 35 years, he has concentrated his practice on advising clients on the federal, New York State, New York City and international tax and business aspects of a variety of complex domestic and cross-border transactions as well as handling high-stakes federal, New York State and New York City tax controversies.

Mark has decades of experience applying his broad and deep knowledge of the tax law and his understanding of business transactions to come up with creative and effective approaches to achieving clients’ business objectives in a tax-efficient manner. He has guided business entities and high-net-worth individuals through the federal, New York and international tax rules applicable to their domestic and cross-border transactions involving, for example, corporations, partnerships, joint ventures, investment funds, limited liability companies, S corporations, real estate investment trusts and debt workouts. Mark also has extensive experience implementing tax and business planning by preparing and negotiating the necessary agreements and other documents.

In tax controversy matters, Mark has extensive experience representing individuals and entities at the audit stage, at the administrative appeals or conciliation level and where necessary at trial and on appeal. He approaches these matters by developing a thorough understanding of the relevant facts by speaking with the client and the client’s representatives and reviewing the relevant documents, preparing an overwhelmingly persuasive written presentation to the tax authorities by applying his deep knowledge of the applicable law to the underlying facts, and working with the tax authorities to arrive at a favorable resolution of the matter that is often a complete client victory.

Mark’s approach has been highly successful in a number of federal tax controversy matters involving domestic tax issues such as reasonable compensation and the proper treatment of interest income and expense and international tax issues such as source and characterization of compensation and royalty income, transfer pricing adjustments and the application of tax treaties, as well as New York State and City tax controversy matters involving issues such as statutory residency, domicile, source and characterization of income, assignments of income and deductibility of interest.

Mark is also a frequent author and lecturer. He has been a co-editor of the Business Entities Journal’s International Taxation Department, the pass-through entities columnist and a member of the Board of Advisors and Contributors of the Journal of S Corporation Taxation, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Journal of Limited Liability Companies.