Forrest David Milder

What do you focus on?

“Outside-the-box” solutions

My practice emphasizes structuring and bringing to closure many kinds of tax-advantaged projects, both for investors and those who need their investment. I have advised on an exceptionally wide range of ventures, with sizes from hundreds of thousands of dollars to hundreds of millions. I am especially known for “outside-the-box” solutions. For example, I developed a technique that facilitated more than one hundred million dollars of renewable facilities qualifying for government grants, even though the projects were nominally owned by the government and bond-financed. I enabled another client to obtain a more than $50 million state credit as the first user of a new program by working with the applicable agency even before it had published any rules.

IRS dispute resolution

I have resolved four different multi-million dollar disputes with the IRS with the taxpayer having zero liability, and several others with only minimal adjustments. On one occasion I worked with clients and others to get the applicable Tax Code provision changed, thereby ending the audit.

Tax-advantaged investment

I have worked with countless developers and investors to close hundreds of transactions involving the low-income housing tax credit, including everything from standard ventures to “80-20” deals and “lease pass-throughs” that also involve the historic tax credit. I have written tax opinions enabling a client with an innovative renewable technology to close more than $150 million of tax credit investments.

Industry thought leadership

I work hard to stay at the forefront of the industries in which I am involved. For example, I am very active in the Solar Energy Industry Association’s Tax Committee, and I authored part of its recent proposal to the IRS on the solar tax credit regulations. I’ve also written more than 60 published articles about renewable energy, including solar, geothermal, biomass, water-based, and wind. In addition, I am a former chair of both the American Bar Association’s 7,000-member Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development and the 3,000-member MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge. I’m the vice-chair of the historic tax credit coalition, and I was a major participant in helping to shape the IRS’s safe harbor on that credit. I’ve authored what is generally considered the best known treatise on housing and historic tax credits.

What do you see on the horizon?

From my vantage point, I note two things of particular importance. First, it is invaluable to be connected to both those who literally write the law and also my colleagues across the country who help interpret it. In this way, I can anticipate what is coming, how others will handle it and be sure that our clients have a role in how the rules are written and applied. Second, flexibility is the key to survival. “That’s how we’ve always done it in the past” is a thing of the past. Today’s opportunities belong to those who are fastest at matching their business to the ever-changing economic and legal landscape.

Recognition as an author

Forrest is the author or co-author of many articles on tax advantaged investments and related matters, as well as the BNA treatise, “Rehabilitation Tax Credit and Low Income Housing Tax Credit.” He has appeared many times on the front page of The Wall Street Journal (in its weekly “Tax Report” column), as well as in The Boston Globe, Banker & Tradesman, The Boston Business Journal, Mass High Tech, and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly with comments on recent and proposed tax legislation. He writes a monthly column on renewable energy, entitled “The Current,” for the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits.

Presentations

• “IRS & Treasury Updates, an ITC for Storage, & More,” SEIA Finance & Tax Seminar, New York, NY, February 28, 2019
• “Opportunity Zones and the Preservation Community,” National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Leadership Forum, January 17, 2019
• “Basic overview of Opportunity Zones,” Novogradac Tax Credit Housing Finance Conference, Las Vegas, NV, November 29, 2018
• “Overcoming Tax and Legal Obstacles,” Novogradac 2018 Opportunity Zones Conference, New Orleans, LA, October 2, 2018
• Presentation on opportunity zones, Chase Opportunity Zones Luncheon, Washington, DC, September 7, 2018