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PartnerWilliam M. Gerhardt III, better known as “Trey”, is the managing partner of the San Antonio, Texas office of Calhoun, Bhella and Sechrest. Trey counsels clients in numerous areas of tax law that include income tax planning, tax controversy, corporate and partnership tax law, executive compensation, and non-profit law. Trey provides sound advice and planning options to owners and partners with their business transactions, acquisitions, and divestitures. Trey assists individuals and families with simple to complex estate planning. Trey’s multidisciplinary practice and experience with his expertise in taxation allows him to serve and counsel clients in ways other attorneys simply cannot. Tax Planning Trey provides tax planning and compliance services for both individuals and businesses in all areas of federal tax law. He serves as a trusted advisor to many businesses and their owners and partners, often working in tandem with their accountants and tax professionals. He has worked on many novel and gray area income tax issues, and he has obtained favorable private letter rulings (PLRs) on a variety of subjects. Tax Controversy and Litigation Trey has extensive experience in tax controversy matters before Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Revenue Agents, the IRS Office of Appeals, Texas Comptroller, and other state departments of taxation or revenue. Trey has litigated multiple cases involving income tax, payroll tax, excise tax, and estate tax against the United States Department of Justice Tax Division and IRS Office of Chief Counsel. He has successfully tried cases in the United States Tax Court (Gregory v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 149 T.C. No. 2), and he serves as a consulting and testifying expert witness in tax law in civil and criminal cases. In criminal tax matters, Trey has co-counseled in U.S. federal court alongside criminal legal counsel representing individuals and businesses alleged to be criminally liable. International Tax Trey represents clients with cross-border tax planning needs. His international tax practice assists domestic and international clients that include wealthy families, dual citizenship individuals, partners and investors, and multinational companies. With the intricacy interplay of U.S. tax law with tax law of foreign jurisdictions, Trey focuses on tax efficiency and minimizing tax liabilities across the jurisdictions. He assists clients with CFC and PFIC tax planning, foreign tax credit and tax treaty utilization, tax withholding and FIRPTA, and pre-immigration tax planning for individuals and their families. State and Local Tax Trey works with clients and their accountants and tax representatives on planning and controversy matters involving State and Local Tax (SALT). He has extensive experience with SALT planning matters and controversies, including franchise tax, sales and use tax, property tax, utility taxes, hotel taxes, fuel taxes, and tax exemptions and resales. Business Structure, Reorganization and Sales Trey works on business entity matters that involve structuring, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures/strategic alliances, and taxable and non-taxable reorganizations. He works with clients on drafting their operation, partnership, and shareholder agreements and bylaws. Trey has worked with many clients on both the seller and buyer side of transactions on the sale of their businesses. Executive Compensation Trey works with businesses and individual executives on nonqualified compensation plans and awards, stock options and profits interests, synthetic equity plans, fringe benefits, and other compensation matters. He has extensive experience with nonqualified deferred compensation and 409A, restricted stock and equity plans, and plans requiring 83(b) elections for vesting. He custom crafts Bonus, Top Hat, Phantom Stock, Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs), Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (SERP) plans for clients to fit their business needs. Estate Planning and Asset Protection Trey provides estate planning services and counsel to clients from basic wills and trusts to more complex estate plans. For plans that require minimizing estate generation skipping taxes, he drafts Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLAT), Grantor Trusts (GRAT, IDGT), Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs), and Charitable Lead Trusts (CLTs). He counsels both individual and corporate fiduciaries regarding a variety of estate and trust administration matters. He assists closely-held business owners, partners, and entrepreneurs with their estate planning, business exit and succession planning needs. Nonprofit and Tax Exempt Trey has extensive experience forming and structuring nonprofit organizations and applying for federal and state tax exemption status. He has obtained federal exemption approval from the IRS under 501(c)(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(10),(13),(25). He works with numerous charities, organizations, and foundations on their management and structure matters, and he creates supporting organizations and for-profit subsidiaries. Trey has spent many years of lecturing and speaking on taxation, business, and estate planning issues at both legal and accounting continuing education classes and to industry specific audiences. He has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio in their master of accounting program and as a guest lecturer at St. Mary’s University. |
BAR ADMISSION
Texas
COURT ADMISSIONS
U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas
United States Tax Court
EDUCATION
B.A., History, Vanderbilt University (1996)
J.D., St. Mary’s University School of Law (2002)
LL.M., Taxation, University of Florida College of Law (2007)
PRACTICE AREAS
Tax
Estate Planning
Mergers and Acquisitions
Commercial Transactions
Texas
COURT ADMISSIONS
U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas
United States Tax Court
EDUCATION
B.A., History, Vanderbilt University (1996)
J.D., St. Mary’s University School of Law (2002)
LL.M., Taxation, University of Florida College of Law (2007)
PRACTICE AREAS
Tax
Estate Planning
Mergers and Acquisitions
Commercial Transactions