The Law Offices of David S. Kerzner

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  Our Services:

1. Design and implementation by an international tax lawyer of tax optimized (and related legal) strategies for Canadian companies (private and public) and funds (pension, private equity) investing in and expanding to the United States including for both federal and state and local levels or U.S. companies expanding internationally.
2. General Counsel-Advising your C-Suite as Cross-Border U.S. Tax & Corporate Counsel.
3. Canadian international tax planning for businesses in Canada expanding globally, including digitally.

Select client work:

• Advised award winning architectural and design companies in Canada on the design and implementation of strategies for structuring their business, tax, and legal affairs to provide services to pre-eminent museums, universities, and governments across multiple states throughout the United States.
• Acted as U.S. tax & corporate counsel for North American Israeli Tech Fund on the design and implantation of strategies to expand technology to over 20 states including complex transfer pricing and state legal and regulatory matters.
• Acted as U.S. tax and corporate counsel for an award winning Canadian entertainment company with a $150 million in assets to design and implement various complex financial and business strategies including complex transfer pricing while working with senior management of principal investor ($100 billion fund). 
• Advised owner-entrepreneur business in Canada about federal and state tax and legal obligations for corporate entity and C-suite including beneficial ownership reporting under the Corporate Transparency Act and FinCEN.
• Acted as U.S. tax and corporate counsel for MNE based in Canada in the global logistics industry (with sales over $30 million) to design and implement a tax optimized cross border business and legal structure in multiple states dealing with income tax, employer tax, and related legal matters (team lead for over 20 professionals including C-suite, attorneys, accountants and economists). 

  Our Services:

1. IRS voluntary disclosures for businesses in Canada and the U.S., including both income and employer taxes (private and public companies).
2. State and local government voluntary disclosures (tax and legal problems) for Canadian businesses (private and public companies).
3. IRS voluntary disclosures for individuals, estates and trusts, including streamlined foreign offshore procedures, appeals, and criminal matters. 
4. Advice on federal income tax, corporate tax, partnership tax, international tax, and international reporting forms, including assisting people who are unsure about their reporting or compliance with the IRS.
5. Expatriation planning (U.S. Treasury & Immigration Law). 
6. Abandonment of green cards (U.S. Treasury & Immigration Law).

Select client work:

• Advised C-suite of publicly traded company on TSX on strategies to remediate international corporate tax delinquencies in U.S. and multiple foreign jurisdictions.
• Advised privately held global logistics corporation in Canada on remediating income and employer tax issues with federal and state and local agencies, including the design and implementation (with transfer pricing) of new tax optimized cross border business and legal structure.
• Since 2006 I have represented numerous delinquent filers in Canada and the European Union (including U.S. citizens, green card holders, and estate executors) to remedy their problems through: voluntary disclosures, including under OVDP and OVDI and streamlined foreign offshore procedures; IRS Appeals; and IRS tax relief procedures (for individuals for the reduction, elimination, or deferral of taxes, including penalty abatements).
• Since 2006, I have represented numerous U.S. citizens in Canada and the E.U. to expatriate or to abandon their green cards, and for those clients retaining dual nationalities, to formulate new strategies to help preserve their wealth under both countries tax systems.
• Advised U.S. citizens in Canada on understanding and resolving complex and potentially devastating corporate tax problems they faced through their personal investments and private corporations under U.S. tax rules, including PFICs, partnerships (including Quebec), and transfer pricing rules. 
• Advised Canadian investors in U.S. real property on remediating tax deficiencies at the federal and state levels regarding their commercial holdings in rental properties.
• Advised U.S. based services MNE with operations in 40 foreign jurisdictions on existential international corporate tax and foreign reporting problems with the IRS which the client and their tax advisors were unaware of and provided strategies to save the group and its owners from fiscal disaster.

  Our Services:

1. Estate and tax planning for residents of Ontario:

• with 1 or more U.S. citizen family members;
• with children living in the U.S.;
• with complex legal structures, e.g., trusts, corporations, partnerships, LLC’s;
• with U.S. vacation property, art, securities or other U.S. situs assets;

2. Estate and tax planning for Canadian residents with siblings, parents, resident in the U.S.

3. Cross border gift and related tax planning for large gifts from Canadian families to their children in the U.S.

4. Tax advice for Ontario executors of estates with U.S. decedents including voluntary disclosures before the IRS for delinquent or non-filers.

5. Provide Canadian and U.S. cross border tax advice for your wills. 

Select Client Work:

• Advised families in Ontario on tax and legal strategies to make large cross border gifts to children and grandchildren living in the U.S. (including Dynasty trust).
• Advised families in Ontario on cross border estate and tax planning and preparation of wills and trusts for their children living in the U.S., including involving complex cross border legal investment and business structures.
• Advised families in Ontario on cross border estate and tax planning for U.S. vacation property, including: the establishment of cross border trusts, and strategies for the sale of vacation property in the U.S. to minimize withholding and income taxation.
• Advised families (or individuals) in Ontario with parents (or a parent) living in the U.S. on cross border estate and income tax planning to minimize decimating tax consequences they face as inheritors/beneficiaries of their parent’s plans.
• Advised families on revising wills made in Ontario (by other professionals), to avoid catastrophic cross border tax consequences on legal issues missed. 

Our Services:

Pathways for residents of Canada to enter and work in the U.S. for business purposes, with integrated cross border tax and legal planning, including under the following visas:

o L-1 Visa (Intra Company Transfer)

o O-1 Visa (Individual of Extraordinary Ability)

o E-1 Visa (Treaty Trader)

o E-2 Visa (Treaty Investor)

o TN Visa (Canadian Professional)

Select Client Work:

• Advised award winning entertainment company in Canada on L-1 visa and related tax and legal strategies (including tax treaty and transfer pricing).
• Advised award winning international design firm in Canada on E-1 visa and related federal and state tax and legal strategies (including tax treaty and transfer pricing).
• Advised MNE in Canada providing global logistical services on E-2 visas and related tax and legal strategies (including treaty and transfer pricing).
• Advised officer from C-suite of publicly traded company on cross border tax planning, post facto, to address potentially decimating tax consequences arising from U.S. immigration advice (received in a vacuum without timely and proper international tax planning).

Advise individuals and corporate clients on very technical international tax problems arising under the Income Tax Act (Canada), Common Reporting Standard, and FATCA, including Canadian residency, treaty law, FAPI, international reporting forms (T1134, T1135), transfer pricing, withholding, voluntary disclosures, and both civil and criminal matters.    

Remediation of cross border tax problems with the CRA is only half the story. My clients also seek a cross border solution to prevent their problems from reoccurring and to make their structure tax efficient.  

REGAN: "O, sir, to wilful men, The injuries that they themselves procure
Must be their schoolmasters." King Lear

-  William Shakespeare

In relocating from Canada or to Canada avoiding Shakespeare's maxim frequently requires a comprehensive understanding of both the Canadian tax rules and decades of jurisprudence surrounding Canada's residency system.  Unfortunately, many of our clients in this area of Canadian international tax law failed to receive timely and proper counselling about their move.

Most of my books on international tax deal importantly with the subject of Canadian residence law and related treaty law.

Our residency tax planning is not for the feint of heart. Understanding our client's personal, economic, and business goals and requirements is of paramount concern.  We work with our clients and to advise them and to create international tax strategies to support their journey. In Canadian residency planning whether you are a pro athlete, or a person relocating for business or family reasons, our clients understand "an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure."

  Our Services:

· Wills and trusts (including revocable and irrevocable trusts)

· Estate tax and gift tax planning

· Generation skipping transfer tax planning

· Planning for non-probate assets 

· Powers of Attorney for health and property

· Elder law

· Taxation of trusts

· Income tax considerations 

· Irrevocable life insurance trusts