U.S. Owners of Foreign Corporations Face New HurdlesU.S. Owners of Foreign Corporations Face New Hurdles

Carl Merino is of counsel in the New York office of Day Pitney LLP. He represents high net worth individuals and families, multinational companies and exempt organizations on a wide range of personal and business tax matters, including cross-border tax planning, compensation arrangements, corporate and partnership tax issues, charitable giving and income taxation of trusts and estates.

Carl works extensively in the international tax arena. He advises non-U.S. clients on structuring inbound investments to minimize income and estate tax exposure and U.S. clients on tax aspects of foreign investments, including anti-deferral rules, entity classification issues and reporting requirements for foreign entities and trusts. His work in this area also encompasses pre-immigration tax planning, employment tax issues for expatriates working abroad and foreign workers in the U.S. and corporate structuring for foreign companies setting up U.S. operations.

Carl regularly advises clients on the use of domestic and foreign grantor trusts, S corporations and other flow-through structures. He collaborates with trusts and estates colleagues on estate planning transactions and other wealth migration issues and advises exempt organizations on nonprofit and employment-related tax matters.

Carl frequently publishes articles on cross-border tax planning, charitable giving and other tax issues.

James started out as a one of Frank Hirth’s first graduates back in 2002. He quickly progressed to associate director creating the Privately Owned Business team before leaving in 2014 to lead and grow the US private client practice at EY in London. James returned to join the Board at Frank Hirth in 2017.

James has a background in advising high net worth individuals with complex US and UK tax affairs. During his first stint with Frank Hirth he spent many years advising clients with non-US business interests and navigating the exposure to the Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) and Passive Foreign Investment Company (PFIC) legislation, along with use of ‘Check the Box’ elections and advising on the appropriate US tax filing options. 

He has since spent greater time working with individuals in the financial services sector and in particular those in the fund manager space, including advising those impacted by the changes made to the carried interest legislation in the UK and the subsequent US/UK tax interactions. Assisting those US taxpayers or ‘accidental Americans’ that have not met their historic US tax filing obligations has been an area of focus although most recently James has spent much time advising clients on the global tax impact upon them becoming deemed domicile in the UK.

Known for translating complex tax technical concepts into easy to understand language whilst maintaining the integrity of the legislation enables James to provide comfort and assurance to his clients along with the relevant insight and exceptional client service.

James is the recipient of the eprivate client 35 Under 35, 2015 and Spear's 500 Top Recommended 2019 awards.

James is a qualified Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) and US Enrolled Agent (EA).