Michael is leader of the firm's Tax Practice Group. Since joining Bass, Berry & Sims in 1984 he has brought a broad range of experience in state and local taxation and in corporate and partnership taxation to the tax section of the firm. He has concurrently developed an equally active estate planning practice. In this capacity, Michael counsels his clients with their business, tax and overall estate planning goals.
State and Local Tax: Michael leads one of the largest and most diversified state and local tax practices in the state of Tennessee. He counsels businesses of all size on state and local tax matters, including structural and transactional planning, administrative and judicial resolution of controversies, negotiation of business incentives, and legislative initiatives and lobbying.
Trusts and Estates: Michael regularly provides advice to clients on a broad range of issues, including business succession planning, transfers of family businesses, gifting programs, charitable techniques, life insurance strategies and general tax planning.
Representative Experience includes:
- Successfully represented TEKsystems in litigation involving the application of Tennessee’s sales tax to software fabrication, maintenance and repair services performed by temporary workers provided by a staff augmentation service;
- Successfully litigated the J.C. Penney National Bank case, which is the first case to directly challenge on Commerce Clause grounds the application of the financial institution tax (an income tax) to out-of-state banks having no physical presence in Tennessee;
- Currently representing ConAgra Foods, Inc. and H.J. Heinz Company, L.P. in litigation regarding the Commerce Clause and Due Process Clause limits on Tennessee’s ability to impose its franchise and excise tax;
- Successfully litigated the Equifax Check Services, Inc., General Electric Information Services and Qualcomm cases, which are cases of first impression concerning the breadth of the telecommunication tax in Tennessee;
- Successfully litigated the Pfizer, Inc. case involving the application of business taxes to wholesale sales of pharmaceuticals to another wholesaler;
- Successful representation of a tax refund claim in excess of $12,000,000 on behalf of Associates Partnership I, Inc., a subsidiary of Daily Mail, DMGT, involving the issue of whether gain from the sale of a partnership interest is business or non-business interest;
- Successful representation of a tax refund claim on behalf of Aabakus, Inc. involving the application of the business tax to an employee leasing business;
- Successful representation of a tax refund claim on behalf of Edwin B. Raskin Company in connection with a for-profit contractor's liability for sales and use taxes in connection with their operation of a municipal golf course;
- Successful representation of a tax refund claim on behalf of IBM Credit Corp. involving property and business taxes;
- Representation of a number of contractors at the Arnold Engineering Development Center in connection with a variety of state and local tax issues (Pan Am World Services, Inc., Sverdrup Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation);
- Representation of the following public companies in connection with a variety of state and local tax issues (General Electric Company, J.C. Penney Company, Inc., Taco Bell Company, The Limited and related entities, The Home Depot, Inc., Lowes Corporation, SouthTrust Bank, Kellogg Company, Kroger Company, W.R. Grace & Co., Square D Company, Equifax Corporation, Sherwin-Williams Company, Sodexho Marriott Management Company, American General Finance, Ryder Truck, Oracle Corporation, Ticketmaster, Inc., Exel, Inc., Roche Laboratories, GlaxoSmithkline, Pfizer, Inc., Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Sprint, York International, Nashua Corporation, Sara Lee Corp., Bank One, SMBC Capital Markets, Conagra, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Allegis Group, L'Oreal, H.J. Heinz, US Smokeless Tobacco Company, Luxottica Retail (Lenscrafters), University of Tennessee, Tate & Lyle Ingredients, Vivendi/Universal Studios, Illinois Tool Works, Sinclair Broadcasting, Sprint Publishing, Vodafone, E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co., Fifth Third Bank and others).
Michael is the Tennessee reporter for State Tax Notes, the chapter author for the ABA's Sales Tax Annual State Review, the contributing editor of CCH's annual book on Tennessee Taxes and the general editor of the Lexis Nexis "Practice Insights" for Tennessee state and local tax issues.
Michael is civically active and is past president of the Davidson County Unit of the American Cancer Society. He is also active in the Tennessee Federal Tax Institute (trustee and past president) and the Vanderbilt University/Paul J. Hartman State and Local Tax Forum (trustee and past president).
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