Peter Barnes Weighs in on Rolling Back Major Tax Shelters in New York Times

The Trump administration is quietly dismantling efforts by the Internal Revenue Service to shut down a slew of aggressive tax shelters used by America’s biggest multinational companies and wealthiest people.

The administration, bowing to pressure from industry groups, right-wing activists and congressional Republicans, is quickly rolling back several I.R.S. law enforcement efforts, including one aimed at a lucrative tax shelter used by companies like Occidental Petroleum and AT&T.

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These schemes are “very aggressive,” said Peter Barnes, a veteran lawyer at Caplin & Drysdale, a Washington, D.C., law firm specializing in taxes. “Some tax advisers are not only pushing the edge but even stepping over it.” He called Treasury’s plans to pull the regulations “very unfortunate.”

The shelters exploit the complex world of partnership tax rules, a subspecialty of the law little understood by I.R.S. examiners and even many experienced tax lawyers.

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Mr. Barnes, who also spent 23 years in the tax department of GE, called the lobbying “suspicious” for its failure to defend the underlying deals, instead focusing on technicalities like dates when the proposed regulations would take effect.

“Nobody has stood up and said, ‘These are good transactions,’” he said. “All they are really trying to do is get a window in which these transactions will continue to not be audited.”

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