Geoffrey Polma

Geoff Polma focuses his practice on state and local taxation. Geoff has represented taxpayers in a wide range of state income, franchise, sales and use, hotel occupancy, severance and ad valorem (property) tax matters, focused on Texas but with very significant multistate experience.

State tax controversy matters are an important component of Geoff's practice, yielding numerous representations of taxpayers in audits, administrative hearings and judicial forums.

Geoff also frequently advises clients on Texas and multistate tax minimization and compliance structuring for complex business transactions, with transaction sizes ranging from a few million to multi-billions of dollars. He has developed and pursued state tax refund strategies for clients, generating many tens of millions of dollars in tax refunds. Similarly, Geoff has broad experience assisting clients in identifying and claiming all manner of state and local economic development incentives in Texas and in other states, such as property tax abatements, economic development grants, tax sharing agreements and infrastructure reimbursements.

Geoff's representative experience includes:

• Secured multiple rulings from the State of Texas and local taxing jurisdictions concluding that several major public/private partnership clients building sports facilities and hotel conference facilities were exempt from ad valorem taxation and could claim exemption from Texas sales and use tax on construction materials
• Regularly provides buy- and sell-side multistate income, sales, ad valorem, and real property transfer tax analysis, agreement drafting and structuring for equity and asset transactions, collectively addressing transactions involving business operations in virtually every state
• Planned and implemented various incentive arrangements whereby taxpayers sitused business operations in particular local jurisdictions in exchange for percentage of resulting increase in local tax revenues
• Contested several assertions of officer and director personal liability for state tax obligations of business entities

Geoff's experience includes tax work in connection with the representation of:

• Silver Eagle Distributors, L.P., the nation’s largest independent distributor of Anheuser-Busch beverages, in the sale of Silver Eagle’s business to a subsidiary of Redwood Capital Investments, LLC
• Brink’s Incorporated in the acquisition of Balance Innovations
• Naturally Slim®, a leading digital health platform and metabolic syndrome reduction program, in an acquisition by global private equity firm The Riverside Company
• RISC Networks, an industry leader in cloud, data center and network operations analytics, in the company’s acquisition by Flexera
• Momentum Midstream in the sale of the company’s 38 percent stake in Utica East Ohio Midstream system (UEO) to Williams Cos
• Wholesale insurance broker ClearView Risk Holdings, LLC, in its acquisition by The Amynta Group
• Starwood Energy Group Global, Inc., a leader in private energy infrastructure investments, as special local counsel in its acquisition of the Manchester Street Power Station from Dominion Generation, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dominion Energy, Inc. (NYSE: D), as part of a larger purchase of two of Dominion’s combined-cycle gas turbine plants for approximately $1.23 billion
• Merit Energy Company in MMGJ Hugoton III, LLC’s acquisition of 100 percent of the issued share capital of BHP Billiton Petroleum (Arkansas) Inc. and 100 percent of the membership interests in BHP Billiton Petroleum (Fayetteville) LLC from BHP Billiton Ltd. for $300 million
• Silver Oak Services Partners, LLC, in the sale of Construction Labor Contractors (CLC) to Tradesmen International, a portfolio company of private equity funds managed by Blackstone Capital Partners
• Twin Point Capital in its equity investment in Flix Entertainment LLC to fund the continued growth and development of Flix Brewhouse, the world’s only combination first-run cinema and dine-in microbrewery

Reported Decisions

• Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, et al., v Brazos Valley Energy, LLC, et al., Case No. 18-0128 (Supreme Court of Texas)
  Participated on trial team winning judgement in an appeal about whether the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has discretion to deny a pollution control tax exemption for certain equipment that reduces air emissions at the facilities
• La Quinta Inns, Inc. v. Sharp, Cause No. 95-15739 (Travis Cty Dist Ct)
  Participated on trial team winning judgment declaring sections 156.103(a)(3) and (b) of the Texas Tax Code void as unconstitutional
• Texas Student Hous. Corp. v. Denton Cent. Appraisal Dist., Cause No. 2002-10026-16 (Denton Cty Dist Ct)
  Participated on trial team securing summary judgment ruling from the bench granting ad valorem exemption on novel "equitable title" theory