Sep 23, 2022
KAV is pleased to announce the arrival of Catherine Fanello as a Partner in the firm’s Public Finance practice group. For the past ten years, Catherine has served as bond, issuer, trustee, purchaser, placement agent and underwriter’s counsel on a variety of taxable and tax-exempt public finance transactions. Prior to joining KAV, Catherine was a Partner at Dinsmore & Shohl LLP. Her experience includes both traditional governmental financings and private activity bonds. Catherine has represented public clients in the issuance of general obligation bonds, tax increment financings, special revenue bonds, utility revenue bonds, lease financings and economic development bonds. Catherine is also a licensed certified public accountant in Indiana.
Catherine can be reached at cfanello@kvfirm.com
Sep 16, 2022
House Resolution 5376—known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “IRA”)—was signed into law by the President Biden on August 16, 2022. Among other legislative changes, the IRA imposes a 15% alternative minimum tax on any “applicable corporation” based upon an “average annual adjusted financial statement income test” as defined by the IRA, for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2022. The corporate alternative minimum tax was previously repealed by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in 2017. The applicable corporations will pay the higher of the minimum corporate tax established under the IRA or the regular tax rate.
Within the public finance sector, the alternative minimum tax may affect taxpayers such as banks, insurance companies, and property and casualty insurers. Interest on Municipal Bonds will be taken into account in calculating the adjusted financial statement income that may be subject to the alternative minimum tax applicable to certain corporations for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2022. In addition, the tax disclosure language within offering statements and tax opinion language will likely be revised to reflect this change under the IRA.
It is unclear how much of an impact this will have on corporate demand for municipal securities at this time. Please contact any member of our Public Finance team for additional guidance at Public Finance Law | Kline Alvarado Veio, PC (kvfirm.com).
Apr 8, 2022
KAV is pleased to announce that Maria Spiridonova has joined the firm as an Associate in the Pubic Finance practice group. Maria earned her J.D. with a certificate in Corporate & Commercial Law from the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, and her B.A. in Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Prior to joining the firm, Maria was an Attorney at Sheridan Ross P.C., a nationally recognized intellectual property firm, where she practiced patent litigation. During law school, Maria gained valuable in-house experience at a large petroleum corporation, served as a judicial intern to the Hon. N. Reid Neureiter with the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, worked as a research assistant to two University of Denver Sturm College of Law professors, and clerked for a boutique firm in Denver.
Maria can be reached at mspiridonova@kvfirm.com or at 303.534.3390 ext. 4030
Mar 21, 2022
KAV Law Clerk Kalen Hilliker Awarded NABL’s Frederick L. Ballard Memorial Scholarship
KAV Law Clerk Kalen Hilliker has been awarded one of five 2022 Frederick L. Ballard Memorial Scholarships from the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL). NABL has awarded the prestigious scholarship to five outstanding law students throughout country with an interest in public finance each year since 2012. Among other things, the scholarship will fund Kalen’s registration, travel and lodging at the 2022 NABL Essentials conference.
Currently in her second year at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law, Kalen was a Summer Associate at KAV during the 2021 summer and will be rejoining KAV’s Summer Associate program in 2022. Kalen currently also works as a part-time law clerk for KAV during the school year.
Congratulations, Kalen, on this tremendous achievement!
Nov 18, 2021
On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) making it law. H.R. 3684 modifies Section 142 of the Internal Revenue Code to allow “qualified broadband projects” and “qualified carbon dioxide capture facilities” to be financed with private activity bonds. In summary, for a qualified broadband project, the issuer must provide notice to each broadband service provider in the area within which broadband services are to be provided and give at least ninety days to respond. A qualified broadband project is defined as a project which is designed to provide service solely to one or more census block groups in which more than 50 percent of residential households do not have access to fixed, terrestrial broadband service which delivers at least 25 megabits per second downstream and at least three megabits service upstream, and results in internet access to residential locations, commercial locations or a combination of both at speeds not less than 100 megabits per second for downloads and 20 megabits per second for uploads, but only if at least 90 percent of the locations where access is to be provided are locations where a broadband service provider did not provide service before the project or did not provide service meeting the minimum speed requirements described above.
Qualified Carbon Dioxide Capture Facility is defined as the eligible components of an industrial dioxide facility and direct air capture facility. Equipment installed in an industrial carbon dioxide facility used for the purpose of capture, treatment and purification, compression, transportation, or onsite storage of carbon dioxide produced by the industrial carbon dioxide facility or integral or functionally related and subordinate to a process which converts a solid or liquid product from coal, petroleum residue, biomass or other materials recovered for their energy or feedstock value into a synthesis gas composed primarily of carbon dioxide and hydrogen for direct use or subsequent chemical or physical conversion should qualify, generally.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act also increases the national limitation for qualified highway or surface freight transportation facilities to $30,000,000,000 as well as provides a partial exception for volume cap for qualified broadband projects.
Victoria S. Byerly is an attorney in KAV’s Public Finance Group. A specialist in Section 103 of the Internal Revenue Code, her practice is exclusively dedicated to state and federal tax matters related to the issuance of tax-exempt debt obligations.
Oct 12, 2021
KAV Tax Partner Victoria S. Byerly, a specialist in Section 103 of the Internal Revenue Code, is the author of Taxation of Public Utilities which has been recently updated to reflect current regulatory standards. First published in 2020, Victoria’s landmark publication is the first comprehensive treatise ever published on the public utility industry’s unique tax problems. Victoria’s treatise is available for purchase at https://bit.ly/3ADc3Zr.
